Funeral industry gears up for boomers

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The projects the annual number of deathes in the United States will risefrom 2.6 milliom next year to 3 million in 2024 and 4 million in 2043. “We hear the tidao wave is coming,” said Chris Meyer, owner of in “We’ve known the (baby boomer trend) has been comingt for some time, so the industryg has been gearing up for that to saidBob Rosson, a Mississippi funera home operator and an executive board membere of the . “We’ll be able to handle But the industry first has to survive the currentdeatjh trough. The number of deaths in the Unitex States declinedby 0.9 percent from 2005 to in part because of a mild flu according to the .
Health care advances have led to record-highg life expectancies and lower annual death rates for a rangewof diseases, including heart disease and diabetes. “Wes have actually felt a lightercase load,” Meyerd said. “I think some of the biggert funeral homes have felt a precipitousadrop off.” Baby boomers might live longer than their parents, but sooner or latert they’ve got to go. Those who want traditionall burials should prepare forrising prices. The mediah cost of a funeral in the Uniterd Stateswas $6,196 in 2006, according to a National Funerapl Directors Association survey released last year.
That which includes a $2,255 metal casket, was 11 percen higher than in the association’s survey in 2004. With the inclusionb of a concrete vault, which many cemeteries the price risesto $7,323. “That’sz the funeral that is goingv outof vogue,” said Joshua Slocum, executive director of nonprofit . He predicts that the funeral industry will respond to the risin death rate by offering cheaper serviceseto compete. “This is not gointg to cause a runon embalmers,” he said. “Irf anybody’s going to jump into the embalming businesdthinking it’s recession-proof, they’re misguided.
Baby boomers are not interesteed intheir grandma’s funeral.” Cremation rates in the Uniteed States increased from 26 percent in 2000 to 35 percentg in 2007, according to the . The association project a rate of 39 percent next year and 59 percentby 2025. “Ih some places of California, like Marin County, you’re looking at a 90 percent cremation rate,” Slocum Cost is a big factor, but therde are also demographic changesat work. “Theu say the ‘greatest generation’ were more traditional, more religious Meyer said.
“Now, more educated more liberal thinkers (who are) less religious in many ways, tend to ‘It’s all about economics for me.’ ” whose mortuary offers both cremation and embalming said a traditional burialcosts $6,000 to depending on the casket. Cremation costxs about $1,000 to $2,000. In the Sacramento area, Meyer said, “there’s been an explosion of storefronrcremation places.” Bodies come in and get shipper to off-site crematoriums. The ashew are returned in an urn. “They don’t have the facilitie s to embalm,” Meyer said. “They don’tr have a chapel. It’s wildlyy cheaper.
It’s sort of the Wal-Martificationn of the funeral industry.” “Green” or “natural” burialzs are also growing in People are buried in a casker made of abiodegradable material, such as pine or or they can skip the casket and just be buried in a Only one cemetery in California, in Mill Valley, offers green burials. It started offering the servicein 2004.