Funeral industry gears up for boomers

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The projects the annual numberf of deaths in the United States will risefrom 2.6 millionn 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 cominh for some time, so the industrh has been gearing up for that to saidBob Rosson, a Mississippj funeral home operator and an executive board memberf of the . “We’llo be able to handle it.” But the industryu first has to survive the currentdeath trough. The numbed of deaths in the United States declinedby 0.9 percenyt from 2005 to 2006, in part becausre of a mild flu according to the .
Healtu care advances have led to record-highj life expectancies and lower annuak death rates for a rangeof diseases, includinbg stroke, heart disease and diabetes. “Wee have actually felt a lightercase load,” Meyer “I think some of the bigger funeral homes have felt a precipitoua drop off.” Baby boomers might live longedr than their parents, but sooner or latetr they’ve got to go. Those who want traditionalp burials should prepare forrising prices. The median cost of a funerall in the United Statewswas $6,196 in 2006, according to a National Funera Directors Association survey releases last year.
That price, which includes a $2,255 meta casket, was 11 percent higher than inthe association’se survey in 2004. With the inclusion of a concretre vault, which many cemeteries the price risesto “That’s the funeral that is going out of vogue,” said Joshuqa Slocum, executive director of nonprofit . He predicts that the funeral industry will respond to the rising death rate by offerinvg cheaper servicesto “This is not going to cause a run on embalmers,” he “If anybody’s going to jump into the embalming businesz thinking it’s recession-proof, they’re misguided. Baby boomers are not intereste intheir grandma’s funeral.
” Cremation rates in the Unitee States increased from 26 percent in 2000 to 35 percenft in 2007, according to the . The association projects a rate of 39 percent next year and 59 percentyby 2025. “In some places of California, like Mari n County, you’re looking at a 90 percent crematioj rate,” Slocum said. Cost is a big factor, but ther are also demographic changesat work. “They say the ‘greatesy generation’ were more traditional, more religious people,” Meyer “Now, more educated people, more liberal thinkers (who are) less religioues in many ways, tend to think, ‘It’zs all about economics for me.
’ ” whose mortuary offers both cremation andembalmingb services, said a traditional buriao costs $6,000 to $10,000, depending on the Cremation costs about $1,000 to $2,000. In the Sacramento Meyer said, “there’s been an explosio of storefrontcremation places.” Bodiezs come in and get shipped to off-sitwe crematoriums. The ashes are returneed in an urn. “They don’t have the facilities to Meyer said. “They don’t have a chapel. It’s wildly It’s sort of the Wal-Martificatiojn of the funeral industry.” “Green” or burials are also growing in popularity.
People are buried in a caskeyt made of abiodegradable material, such as pine or wicker, or they can skip the casketf and just be buried in a Only one cemetery in California, in Mill offers green burials. It started offerinh the servicein 2004.