When a calendar year comes to an end, I find it useful to look at the statistics for the funerals we have conducted, as they give an insight in to the changing attitudes surrounding funerals. Something that has been a common theme over the years, and comes as no surprise, is the balance of cremations vs. burials - cremation has been increasing favoured year on year, and 2018 has seen the figure hit almost 80%, the highest we have known. For the first time, I looked at the proportion of cremations where the ceremony was at the crematorium only and was quite surprised to see that the figure was in excess of two-thirds of all cremations. We have noted a growing preference towards crematorium-only services but didn't expect the figure to be as great.
A couple of other notable figures jump out from the analysis: Although the figure of 2.76% of no-service funerals (Direct Cremations) is relatively small, it does in fact represent a notable increase on previous years as more people opt for simplicity through either personal choice or necessity. The biggest change is the shift in the preference of who leads the service, with Independent Celebrants now the second largest group overall. Five years ago, Church of England represented 65% of our funerals with Celebrants at 12%, which shows a notable shift of preference in recent times. Meanwhile, the other groups have stayed roughly the same.
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AuthorMike Jolly, Director of Eaves Funeral Service Ltd. Archives |