The cost of the average funeral has gone down in the UK for the first time since at least 2004.
This is according to life insurer SunLife’s 2022 Cost of Dying Report which showed the average cost of dying when including the professional fees and send-off costs is £8,864 – down 4.3% on 2020 data. This marked the first decrease since SunLife started publishing the report back in 2004.
The report also reveals the average cost of a basic funeral has also gone down 3.1% to £4,056 compared to £4,184 in 2020.
According to the report the most expensive place to die is London (£5,385) where costs increased 2.3% on 2020, while the most affordable pace to die was Northern Ireland (£3,056) where costs dropped 5.2% on 2020.
Cremations are the most popular method of funeral – favoured by 57% of those surveyed – followed by burials and direct cremations – at 25% and 18% respectively.
The same percentage of people were turning to savings and investments to fund funerals (38%) in 2021 as 2020, while there was a slight decline in those using a credit card at 22% in 2021, down from 25% in 2020.
There was however a slight increase among those borrowing money from a friend or relative at 27%, up from 25% in 2020.