Cremation Offers Cost-Effective Option to Burial
In these challenging economic times, with families fearful about job layoffs and struggling to pay rising fuel and food bills, an increasing number of U.S. families are turning to cremation as an affordable option to traditional burial. Reflecting a national trend, the Baltimore Sun recently reported an increase in cremations in Maryland over the past year. According to the Sun article, funeral directors and industry groups are reporting increasing nationwide interest in cremation as a less costly alternative to traditional embalming and burial.
“We are seeing a substantial increase [in cremation] across the state,” Hari Close, a Baltimore funeral home owner and president of the Maryland State Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors, told the Sun. “The economy is the issue. … It’s a situation where families in some cases don’t have the resources to bury.”
According to statistics from the Cremation Association of North America, over the past decade, cremation has been rising steadily as a preferred funeral option. In 2006, the last year for which figures are currently available, 33.6% of American families chose to have their departed loved ones cremated. Funeral directors say that while the nationwide trend toward cremation is being driven by environmental consciousness (see tomorrow’s post), weaker religious affiliations and our mobile society, it is cost that is the major motivating factor behind most families’ decisions to cremate their departed loved ones.
Through Cremation Options, a simple cremation can cost as little as $795 compared to the $2795 cost of a traditional funeral. Arranged through your local funeral home, burial costs can easily run $7,000 or considerably more. Families without life insurance to help pay funeral costs are increasingly choosing cremation to avoid depleting the family budget or dipping into critical cash reserves. For families who don’t already own a cemetery plot, cremation can save that additional $1500 (0r more) cost. Since most cemeteries permit the burial of multiple cremains on a single plot, even those who wish to have their cremains interred in a family burial plot can realize a savings. Cremation also allows families to honor their dearly departed now but delay interment until the economy and their personal finances are more stable.
Interestingly, funeral directors report that families who choose cremation are still requesting a viewing and memorial service with all the accoutrements of a full burial. “They’re seeing a chance to have their full service, but yet it costs them two to three thousand dollars less than if they opted for a funeral,” said Baltimore funeral home owner David Weber, spokesman for the National Association of Funeral Directors.