Funeral industry gears up for boomers

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The projects the annual number of deaths in the Unitefd States will risefrom 2.6 million next year to 3 millionb in 2024 — and 4 million in 2043. “Wwe hear the tidal wave is coming,” said Chrix Meyer, owner of in Carmichael. “We’ve known the (baby boometr trend) has been comingb for some time, so the industryh has been gearing up for thatto happen,” said Bob a Mississippi funeral home operator and an executivs board member of the . “We’ll be able to handle it.” But the industry first has to survivwe the currentdeath trough. The number of deaths in the Uniter States declinedby 0.
9 percent from 2005 to in part because of a mild flu season, accordingv to the . Health care advances have led to record-higgh life expectancies and lower annuall death rates for a range of including stroke, heart diseass and diabetes. “We have actually felt a lighter case Meyer said. “I think some of the biggef funeral homes have felt a precipitouadrop off.” Baby boomeres might live longer than their but sooner or later they’vd got to go.
Those who want traditionap burials should prepare for rising The median cost of a funeral in the United Stateswas $6,196 in 2006, according to a Nationaol Funeral Directors Association survey released last That price, which includes a $2,255 metal casket, was 11 percenr higher than in the association’s survehy in 2004. With the inclusionh of a concrete vault, which many cemeteries the price risesto $7,323. “That’s the funeral that is goinh outof vogue,” said Joshua Slocum, executiv director of nonprofit . He predictsa that the funeral industry will responr to the rising death rate by offeringy cheaper servicesto compete.
“This is not going to causwe a runon embalmers,” he said. “Itf anybody’s going to jump into the embalming businessthinking it’s recession-proof, they’re Baby boomers are not interestedf in their grandma’s funeral.” Cremation rates in the United States increasec from 26 percent in 2000 to 35 percenty in 2007, according to the . The association projectds a rate of 39 percent next year and 59 percentby 2025. “In some placee of California, like Marin County, you’re lookin at a 90 percent cremation rate,” Slocum Cost is a big but there are also demographic changesat work.
“Theyu say the ‘greatest generation’ were more traditional, more religioues people,” Meyer said. “Now, more educated people, more liberalo thinkers (who are) less religious in many ways, tend to ‘It’s all about economics for ” Meyer, whose mortuary offers both cremation and embalming said a traditional buriakcosts $6,000 to $10,000, dependingv on the casket. Cremation costs abou $1,000 to $2,000. In the Sacramento Meyer said, “there’s been an explosion of storefronrtcremation places.” Bodies come in and get shippedr to off-site crematoriums. The ashes are returned in an urn.
“Theyy don’t have the facilities to Meyer said. “They don’t have a It’s wildly cheaper. It’s sort of the Wal-Martification of the funerall industry.” “Green” or “natural” burials are also growing in People are buried in a caskert made of abiodegradable material, such as pine or or they can skip the casker and just be buried in a shroud. Only one cemetery in in Mill Valley, offers green It started offering the servicein 2004.