Funeral industry gears up for boomers

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The projects the annual number of deaths in the United Statesw will risefrom 2.6 million next year to 3 million in 2024 — and 4 millionb in 2043. “We hear the tidalo wave is coming,” said Chris Meyer, ownee of in Carmichael. “We’ve known the (babyy boomer trend) has been coming for some so the industry has been gearing up for that to saidBob Rosson, a Mississippi funeral home operatoe and an executive boarde member of the . “We’lkl be able to handle it.” But the industr y first has to survive the currentdeat trough. The number of deaths in the United Statea declinedby 0.
9 percent from 2005 to 2006, in part becauser of a mild flu season, according to the . Healt care advances have led to record-high life expectancies and lowefr annual death rates for a rangdeof diseases, including stroke, heart disease and “We have actually felt a lighterd case load,” Meyer said. “I thinik some of the bigger funeral homes have felt a precipitouesdrop off.” Baby boomers might live longer than theidr parents, but sooner or later they’ve got to go.
Those who want traditionakl burials should prepare for rising The median cost of a funeral in the Uniter Stateswas $6,196 in 2006, accordint to a National Funeral Directors Associatioj survey released last year. That price, whichh includes a $2,255 metal casket, was 11 percent highe r than inthe association’s surveyy in 2004. With the inclusion of a concrete which manycemeteries require, the price rises to “That’s the funeral that is going out of vogue,” said Joshuas Slocum, executive director of nonprofit . He predictsa that the funeral industry will respond to the risiny death rate by offering cheaper serviceszto compete.
“This is not going to cause a run on he said. “If anybody’s going to jump into the embalminf businessthinking it’s recession-proof, they’rse misguided. Baby boomers are not interestee intheir grandma’s funeral.” Cremation rates in the Unitedf States increased from 26 percenft in 2000 to 35 percentf in 2007, according to the . The association projectz a rate of 39 percent next year and 59 percenttby 2025. “In some places of California, like Maribn County, you’re looking at a 90 percengt cremation rate,” Slocum said. Cost is a big factor, but there are also demographicx changesat work.
“Theyt say the ‘greatest generation’ were more traditional, more religious people,” Meyer said. “Now, more educated more liberal thinkers (who are) less religious in many tend to think, ‘It’s all about economicss for me.’ ” Meyer, whose mortuary offers both cremation and embalming said a traditional burialcostxs $6,000 to $10,000, depending on the casket. Crematio n costs about $1,000 to In the Sacramento Meyer said, “there’s been an explosion of storefrongtcremation places.” Bodies come in and get shippedx to off-site crematoriums. The asheas are returned in an urn.
“They don’rt have the facilities to embalm,” Meyer “They don’t have a chapel. It’s wildl cheaper. It’s sort of the Wal-Martification of the funerak industry.” “Green” or “natural” burialzs are also growing in popularity. People are buried in a casker made of a biodegradable such as pineor wicker, or they can skip the caskety and just be buried in a Only one cemetery in California, in Mill offers green burials. It started offering the servicewin 2004.