Funeral industry gears up for boomers

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The projects the annual number of deaths in the United States will risefrom 2.6 million next year to 3 million in 2024 and 4 million in 2043. “We hear the tidalo wave is coming,” said Chris Meyer, owner of in “We’ve known the (baby boomer trend) has been coming for some so the industry has been gearing up for thatto happen,” said Bob a Mississippi funeral home operator and an executived board member of the . “We’lk be able to handle it.” But the industry first has to survivwe the current death The number of deaths in the Unite d States declinedby 0.9 percent from 2005 to in part because of a mild flu according to the .
Health care advanced have led to record-high life expectancies and lowee annual death rates for a range of including stroke, heart disease and diabetes. “We have actuallyy felt a lightercase load,” Meyer “I think some of the biggerf funeral homes have felt a precipitous drop Baby boomers might live longer than their parents, but soone or later they’ve got to go. Thosed who want traditional burials shoulc prepare forrising prices.
The mediabn cost of a funeral in the Unitedf Stateswas $6,196 in 2006, according to a Nationao Funeral Directors Association survey released last That price, which includes a $2,255 metal casket, was 11 percen t higher than in the association’s surveg in 2004. With the inclusion of a concrete vault, which many cemeteries require, the price rises to “That’s the funeral that is going out of saidJoshua Slocum, executive director of nonprofit . He predictsz that the funeral industry will respond to the rising deathj rate by offering cheaper servicesto “This is not going to causde a run on embalmers,” he said.
“Id anybody’s going to jump into the embalminb businessthinking it’s recession-proof, they’rer misguided. Baby boomers are not interested intheitr grandma’s funeral.” Cremation rates in the Unitesd States increased from 26 percen in 2000 to 35 percen in 2007, according to the . The association projects a rate of 39 percen t next year and 59 percentby 2025. “Inb some places of California, like Marin County, you’rde looking at a 90 percenft cremation rate,” Slocum said. Cost is a big but there are also demographic changesxat work.
“They say the ‘greatest generation’ were more traditional, more religiouas people,” Meyer said. “Now, more educated people, more liberak thinkers (who are) less religious in many tend to think, ‘It’ all about economics for me.’ Meyer, whose mortuary offers both cremation andembalmingh services, said a traditional burial costds $6,000 to $10,000, depending on the casket. Cremation costs about $1,000p to $2,000. In the Sacrament area, Meyer said, “there’s been an explosion of storefrontrcremation places.” Bodies come in and get shipped to off-sitre crematoriums. The ashes are returned in an urn.
“Theyh don’t have the facilities to embalm,” Meyer said. “Theg don’t have a It’s wildly cheaper. It’s sort of the Wal-Martification of the funeral industry.” “Green” or “natural” burials are also growinb in popularity. People are buried in a caskett made of abiodegradable material, such as pine or or they can skip the casketf and just be buried in a shroud. Only one cemetery in in Mill Valley, offers green It started offering the servicein 2004.