If you ask a large group of people to raise their hands if they’ve thought about the cost of their death, then you’re not very likely to see many in the air. Many with their hands down will be young, and those who do raise their hands are likely in their senior years, but it should be something all of us think about, not just some.
It's not cheap to bury a loved one
Legal and General have released a report detailing just how much it will cost us to die. Quite a sobering topic, really.
The average cost of a funeral in the UK has risen by 4% in the last 12 months, and almost 40% in the last 6 years. The average cost for a burial funeral is now £4,800, whereas a cremation will set you back £3,872.
The cheapest region in the UK for funerals is Northern Ireland, where on average a burial will cost £3,300 and a cremation £3,400. Northern Ireland is also the only region in the UK where cremations are pricier than burials, due to the limited number of available crematoriums.
Unsurprisingly, the most expensive place for a funeral is London, with an average burial costing £7,700, and a cremation £4,600. That’s 60% more than the average UK cost, but you have to be prepared to pay even more than that if you fancy your funeral in Enfield, where burial funerals can cost as much as £13,049!
And these amounts don’t even take into consideration floral tributes or post-funeral gatherings, so you’ll need to budget a little extra for the sausage rolls.
For a lot of us, figures like these mean it’s becoming too expensive for us to die.
Because of these costs, it doesn’t come as a shock that 77% of funerals are cremations, but regardless of the type of send-off you have, funeral directors charges also vary depending on your location. Again, Northern Ireland’s funeral directors are the cheapest at £2,642, but add almost a grand on top of this for the same service in London, where it will cost you £3,543.
If things keep on going as they are, by 2024 it’s expected that the average cost of a UK funeral will be £5,925, a figure which none of us want to force upon our families during what is already a difficult time.
For information on how to prepare for your funeral, check out the Legal and General website.