Industry revenues to surpass £3bn in 2024, Final Duties finds

The UK’s funeral market revenues is expected to surpass £3bn this year for the first time in a non-Covid year, according to the latest research by Final Duties. 

Final Duties has analysed the changing size of the UK’s funeral market by total revenues between 2013 and 2024 to predict how big the market will be by the end of 2024. 

According to the research, the funeral market generated an estimated total revenues of £2.9bn in 2023. This marked an annual increase of 4.1% compared with the total revenue of £2.8bn in 2022. 

The figures recorded in 2022 came after a significant annual decline of 17.7%, which Final Duties has attributed to funeral activity falling to more normal rates after two years of unusually high death rates due to the pandemic. 

The pandemic spike is illustrated by a 14.7% revenue spike in 2021 alone when it totalled £3.4bn.

Using this historic data, Final Duties has forecasted for the first time that revenues could break the £3bn mark for the first time in a non-pandemic year. 

Revenue is forecast to total £3.3bn by the end of this year. 

Even if the calculations are changed to ignore 2021’s artificial revenue spike created by the pandemic, Final Duties’ forecast for 2024 still surpasses £3bn with total revenue of £3.1bn.

Jack Gill, MD of Final Duties, said: “The size of the UK’s funeral market is increasing for two reasons. First, the cost of a funeral has increased due to heightened inflation, with the average basic funeral now costing £4,141, and second is the sad fact that more people are dying than in previous years.

“As inflation settles and the costs associated with a funeral come down, we would hope to see these savings passed on to customers. But the funeral industry is always going to generate huge revenue, and if people keep dying at a greater rate, this revenue is going to get bigger and bigger.”