Funeral Industry Statistics 2026: Costs, Cremation Rates, and the Numbers Owners Use

The funeral industry statistics that owners use in 2026 start with four numbers: 15,401 funeral homes in the United States, a projected 2025 cremation rate of 63.4%, a median cost of $8,300 for a funeral with viewing and burial in 2023, and 3,072,666 deaths in 2024. The first three come from the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) and the fourth from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This page traces every figure to the organization that published it, gives the year it describes, and says so where two sources disagree.

What are the key funeral industry statistics for 2026?

The table below gives each main figure, the year it describes, and the organization that published it. The year is often earlier than 2026: the CDC says final death statistics are typically released 11 months after a year ends. CANA is the Cremation Association of North America, MedPAC is the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, BLS is the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and FTC is the Federal Trade Commission.

How many funeral homes are there in the United States, and who owns them?

There are 15,401 funeral homes operating in the United States, according to the NFDA statistics page, which NFDA last updated on September 29, 2025. NFDA says approximately 75% of those funeral homes are family or privately owned.

NFDA also reports that funeral homes employ 105,300 people and generate $16.3 billion in revenue. The NFDA page gives no year for these counts, so cite them with the date the page was updated.

NFDA does not say who owns the remaining quarter, and this article does not guess. The U.S. Census Bureau publishes establishment counts by industry in County Business Patterns, but the funeral home count could not be retrieved for this article.

If you plan to open a firm, read how to start a funeral home. If you own a family firm, the next two questions are succession planning and what a funeral home is worth.

What is the cremation rate in 2026, and where is it heading?

The latest published cremation rate describes 2025: 63.4% according to NFDA and 62.8% according to the Cremation Association of North America (CANA). A cremation rate is the percentage of deaths in a year that are followed by cremation. Neither organization showed a 2026 rate on the pages checked in September 2026.

NFDA and CANA do not explain the 0.6 point difference between their 2025 rates, so this article does not either. NFDA labels its 2025 figure a projection. CANA says it has collected death and cremation data from state and provincial vital statistics departments or other regulatory agencies for more than 25 years. When you quote a cremation rate, name the organization.

Both organizations expect cremation to keep rising. NFDA projects 82.3% cremation and 13.0% burial by 2045. For the effect on revenue per case, read funeral home profitability as cremation grows.

What is the average funeral cost in 2026?

The latest national figure is a median for 2023: $8,300 for a funeral with viewing and burial, and $6,280 for a funeral with viewing and cremation, according to the NFDA 2023 General Price List Study. A median is the middle value: half of the prices reported are higher and half are lower.

A General Price List is the itemized list of goods and services that the FTC Funeral Rule requires a funeral provider to give to anyone who asks in person about its prices. For the 2023 study, 809 NFDA members completed the survey.

NFDA’s own release prints the basic services fee as $2,495 in both tables, and the burial items add up to $8,300 only at that figure, although the copies of the release on Connecting Directors and AFCCA print $2,459 in the burial table.

The NFDA median leaves out cemetery interment, a monument or marker, and cash advance charges such as flowers or an obituary. Between 2021 and 2023 the burial median rose 5.8%, while NFDA put overall inflation for the two years at 13.6%. To compare your own list, start with General Price List management.

How many people die in the United States each year?

About 3.07 million people. The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics registered 3,072,666 resident deaths in 2024, which is the latest final count. The 2024 count was 18,298 lower than the 2023 count.

Life expectancy at birth was 79.0 years in 2024, up 0.6 year from 2023. The age-adjusted death rate fell 3.8%, from 750.5 to 722.1 deaths per 100,000 standard population. An age-adjusted death rate is a death rate recalculated to a standard mix of ages, so that one year can be compared with another.

Provisional CDC figures for 2025 came out in July 2026: 3,094,593 deaths, based on 99.9% of death records received as of May 10, 2026. The 2025 age-adjusted rate was 689.2, which is 4.6% lower than in 2024. The CDC warns that provisional numbers may change as more records arrive.

Where do people die, and how many use hospice?

In 2018, 35.1% of deaths in the United States occurred in a hospital, 31.4% at the person’s home, and 26.8% in a long-term care facility, according to figures the CDC published in May 2020. The long-term care group covers hospice facilities, nursing homes and other long-term care.

Hospice is palliative and supportive care for people who are terminally ill. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) reported in March 2026 that 52.9% of Medicare decedents used hospice in 2024, up from 51.7% in 2023. More than 1.8 million beneficiaries received hospice services from about 6,700 providers.

Place of death affects who makes the first call: a hospital, a facility, a hospice nurse, or a family at home. See referral relationships with hospice and clergy.

How many people work in funeral service, and what are they paid?

Funeral service workers held about 61,500 jobs in 2025, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The median annual wage in May 2025 was $78,790 for funeral home managers and $55,010 for morticians, undertakers and funeral arrangers.

BLS projects employment of funeral service workers to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 5,600 openings each year. BLS expects demand from people prearranging services, held back by cremation, which BLS says costs less and requires fewer workers.

The BLS figure of 61,500 jobs covers two occupations. The NFDA figure of 105,300 covers the people funeral homes employ. The two figures measure different things. A wage is also not an owner’s income: see what a funeral home owner earns.

What do families say about price and the phone?

In Johnson Consulting Group data, 3.6% of traditional burial families and 10.8% of direct cremation families named price as a reason for choosing the firm. In undercover calls by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 26% of funeral providers gave no price information after business hours.

Johnson Consulting Group’s 2026 report examined 654,327 sales and family survey records collected over five years, as reported by Funeral Vision in September 2026. Families who named initial contact as a reason for choosing the firm gave a Net Promoter Score of 95.1. A Net Promoter Score is a measure of how willing customers are to recommend a business. The Funeral Vision article does not say which firms supplied the records.

The FTC staff report, released on November 20, 2024, also found that half of the providers called answered at least some price questions with estimates or ranges, and that at least 37 quoted different prices for the same services on different calls. The rules are in phone price disclosure under the Funeral Rule.

What do funeral home owners and directors say their biggest problems are?

Hiring and keeping staff comes first. In the 2024 Connecting Directors Deathcare Survey, 44% of respondents named recruiting and retaining employees as their top challenge, down from 50% in 2023.

The Connecting Directors survey describes the people who answered it. Connecting Directors says hundreds of readers from 45 states took part, and that 41% of respondents have served primarily as funeral directors, owners, or managers in the Generation X age group. Respondents managed an average of 377 calls a year, down from 394 in 2023. A call here means a case.

Revenue generation rose from 11th place in 2023 to fourth in 2024. One response to a staff shortage is covered in serving more families without adding staff.

How many consumers preplan or want a green burial?

In the NFDA 2025 Consumer Awareness and Preferences Study, 19.4% of respondents had preplanned and prepaid for their arrangements, and 61.4% were interested in exploring green funeral options, up from 55.7% in 2021. NFDA surveyed 1,126 Americans age 40 and older.

• Non-traditional locations: 58.3% had attended a funeral at a non-traditional location.
• Facebook: 40% had used a funeral home they found on Facebook, up from 21% in 2023.
• Confidence: 44.4% would feel not very confident or not at all confident planning a funeral without professional help.

NFDA lists a 2026 edition of the consumer report on its research page, but the public NFDA statistics page still showed the 2025 figures in September 2026. For the practical side, read green and natural burial and funeral home technology trends for 2026.

How should you cite these figures, and how often do they change?

Cite the organization, the report, and the year the figure describes. For example: "NFDA 2023 General Price List Study, national median cost of a funeral with viewing and burial, $8,300." A figure changes when its publisher issues a later edition, so check the date before you reuse one.

Before you put any statistic in front of a lender, a reporter, or your staff, ask six questions.

1. Who published the figure, and can you open the page yourself?
2. What year does the figure describe, as opposed to the year it was published?
3. Is the figure a count, a median, an average, or a projection?
4. Who was surveyed, and how many answered?
5. What does the figure leave out?
6. Has a later edition replaced it?

This article is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Licensing rules and price rules differ by state.

How FuneralHQ handles this

FuneralHQ does not publish national statistics, and no figure in this article comes from FuneralHQ customers. FuneralHQ is software for funeral homes, and its reporting covers your own firm. Reports read from the same case records your staff work in, with nothing to export. The dashboard shows case volume over time, burial and cremation mix, revenue, outstanding balances, and payments collected for the period you pick. A multi-location firm can view one site or compare locations side by side.

FuneralHQ reporting gives you a firm figure to set beside a national one, such as your own cremation share beside the NFDA rate. If you handle few cases and a spreadsheet already gives your accountant what is needed, reporting software may be more than you need. Funeral home KPIs lists the numbers worth tracking either way.

Common questions about funeral industry statistics

When will cremation pass 50% in every state?

NFDA projects that all 50 states and the District of Columbia will pass a 50% cremation rate by 2035. Nationally, NFDA projects 82.3% cremation by 2045, and CANA projects 69.1% by 2030. These are projections, so cite the report and its year.

How much does a funeral with cremation cost?

NFDA put the national median cost of a funeral with viewing and cremation at $6,280 in 2023, up 8.1% from $5,810 in 2021. That median includes a viewing, a ceremony, embalming, an alternative cremation container and an urn. The NFDA median is not the price of a direct cremation.

How many funeral directors are there in the United States?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts jobs, not licenses. In 2025, morticians, undertakers and funeral arrangers held about 26,700 jobs, and funeral home managers held about 34,800. Of the managers, 58% were self-employed. For licensed directors in your state, ask the state licensing board.

Is funeral service a growing occupation?

Funeral service is growing slowly. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of funeral service workers to rise 4% from 2025 to 2035, from 61,500 jobs to 63,700. BLS describes that pace as about as fast as the average for all occupations, with about 5,600 openings each year.

What is the death rate in the United States?

The CDC reports 903.4 deaths per 100,000 population for 2024. The age-adjusted death rate was 722.1 per 100,000 in 2024, down 3.8% from 750.5 in 2023. Provisional CDC data puts the 2025 age-adjusted rate at 689.2, which is 4.6% lower than in 2024.

What are the leading causes of death?

Heart disease and cancer lead. In the CDC’s final 2024 data, heart disease accounted for 683,491 deaths and cancer for 619,876, followed by accidents at 197,449. Provisional 2025 data shows the same order: heart disease at 694,708 deaths, cancer at 622,832, and unintentional injuries at 184,265.

How much revenue do funeral homes generate?

The NFDA statistics page says funeral homes in the United States generate $16.3 billion in revenue, and that crematories and cemeteries generate a further $4.274 billion. The page does not give the year of those figures. NFDA last updated the page on September 29, 2025, so cite that date.

How many calls does a funeral home handle in a year?

The sources used here give no national count of cases per funeral home. In the 2024 Connecting Directors Deathcare Survey, respondents reported an average of 377 calls a year, down from 394 in 2023 and 475 in 2021. That average describes the people who answered the survey.