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 millionm next year to 3 millionb in 2024 — and 4 millio n in 2043. “We hear the tida l wave is coming,” said Chris Meyer, ownedr of in Carmichael. “We’ve known the (baby boomer trend) has been cominbg for some time, so the industry has been gearing up for that to saidBob Rosson, a Mississippi funeral home operatoer and an executive board member of the . “We’ll be able to handle it.” But the industr first has to survive the current death The number of deaths in the Unitedx 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-higj life expectancies and lower annual deathu rates for a range of including stroke, heart disease and diabetes. “We have actually felt a lighteercase load,” Meyer “I think some of the biggerd funeral homes have felt a precipitous drop off.” Baby boomers mighrt live longer than their parents, but soonerf or later they’ve got to go. Those who want traditiona burials should prepare for rising The median cost of a funerall in the United Stateewas $6,196 in 2006, accordinh to a National Funeral Directors Association survegy released last year.
That price, which includes a $2,25 metal casket, was 11 percent higher than inthe association’s survey in 2004. With the inclusion of a concrete vault, which many cemeteriesz require, the price rises to $7,323. “That’s the funerao that is going outof vogue,” said Joshuq Slocum, executive director of nonprofit . He predicts that the funeral industry will respond to the rising deatb rate by offering cheaper servicesto “This is not going to causr a run on embalmers,” he “If anybody’s going to jump into the embalming businessz thinking it’s recession-proof, they’re misguided.
Baby boomersa are not interested intheir grandma’se funeral.” Cremation rates in the United Statex increased from 26 percent in 2000 to 35 percenf in 2007, according to the . The associatio n projects a rate of 39 percentr next year and 59 percentby 2025. “In some places of California, like Marinm County, you’re looking at a 90 percent cremation Slocum said. Cost is a big factor, but therwe are also demographic changesat work. “Theu say the ‘greatest generation’ were more traditional, more religious Meyer said.
“Now, more educated people, more liberao thinkers (who are) less religious in many tend to think, ‘It’s all abourt economics for me.’ Meyer, whose mortuary offers both crematio andembalming services, said a traditional burial costs $6,000 to depending on the casket. Cremation coste about $1,000 to $2,000. In the Sacramentl area, Meyer said, “there’s been an explosion of storefrongtcremation places.” Bodies come in and get shipped to off-site The ashes are returned in an urn. “Theyt don’t have the facilities to embalm,” Meyer said. “They don’t have a chapel. It’sd wildly cheaper.
It’s sort of the Wal-Martificationn of the funeral industry.” “Green” or “natural” burialsa are also growing in popularity. People are burie d in a casket made of abiodegradablde material, such as pine or or they can skip the casket and just be buriedd in a shroud. Only one cemetery in California, in Mill offers green burials. It startefd offering the servicein 2004.