How Much Does a Funeral Cost? A Line-by-Line Breakdown

How much does a funeral cost? The most recent national figure is from the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), a trade association. Its 2023 study put the national median for a funeral with viewing and burial at $8,300, or $9,995 once a burial vault is added. That figure leaves out the cemetery plot, the grave opening, the headstone, flowers and the obituary, so the bill most families actually pay is higher. (NFDA, 2023 General Price List Study)

A funeral is not sold as one price. It is a list of separately priced goods and services, and federal law gives you the right to pick only the ones you want. Below is each line, what the national median was, and which lines you can drop.

How much does a funeral cost, line by line

The NFDA has calculated its median the same way since the 1960s: it adds up the prices of the same set of items. These are the 2023 national medians from its 2023 General Price List Study release. They are national midpoints, not local prices. Your funeral home’s own price list is the only number that counts for your bill.

The NFDA’s 2021 median for the same funeral was $7,848. The 2023 total is the most recent one the association has published. Treat it as a 2023 figure, not a 2026 price.

What the median leaves out

The NFDA says plainly that its figure does not include interment in a cemetery, a monument or grave marker, or “cash advance” charges such as flowers or an obituary. For a burial, those can be a large share of the total. They also tend to come on separate bills.

• The cemetery plot or crypt. The FTC notes that plots can be expensive, especially in metropolitan areas. Prices are set by each cemetery.
• Opening and closing the grave. Cemeteries charge separately to open a grave and to fill it in.
• Endowment or perpetual care. This is sometimes included in the plot price and sometimes billed separately. Ask before you buy.
• Headstone or marker, plus any fee the cemetery charges to set it.
• Cash advance items. These are things the funeral home buys from someone else for you: flowers, obituary notices, clergy honoraria, musicians, certified copies of the death certificate. 16 CFR 453.1(b) lists these as examples.

The FTC’s Funeral Rule does not cover cemeteries and mausoleums unless they sell both funeral goods and funeral services. (FTC, Buying a Cemetery Site) So the price-list protections below apply to the funeral home’s bill, not always to the cemetery’s.

The one fee you cannot decline

Under the Funeral Rule, the basic services fee is the only funeral-home fee for services, facilities or overhead that may be made non-declinable, “unless otherwise required by law.” (16 CFR 453.2(b)(4)(iv)) It covers work common to every funeral: planning, getting permits and death certificates, sheltering the remains and coordinating with the cemetery or crematory. (FTC, Funeral Costs and Pricing Checklist)

Some funeral homes build this fee into their casket prices instead of listing it separately. If they do, the price list has to say so. The same fee is then added if you bring your own casket.

Not declinable by the funeral home does not mean nothing else can ever be required. A cemetery can require a grave liner or vault. A few state laws require embalming or refrigeration in particular circumstances. If a legal, cemetery or crematory requirement forces you to buy something, the funeral home must explain that requirement in writing on your itemized statement. (FTC, The FTC Funeral Rule)

Lines you can drop or shop elsewhere

Embalming

The FTC’s required wording is that “except in certain special cases, embalming is not required by law.” A funeral home cannot embalm for a fee without permission, unless state or local law requires it in that situation. (16 CFR 453.3 and 453.5) Many funeral homes do require embalming for a public viewing. The FTC suggests asking whether a private family viewing without embalming, or refrigeration, is available.

The casket

You can buy a casket from a third-party seller or online and have it delivered. The funeral home must accept it and cannot charge you a fee for using it. (FTC) You must be shown a casket price list before you see any caskets. Ask for the lower-priced models, which the FTC notes are often not on display.

The vault

The funeral home’s price list must include this disclosure: “In most areas of the country, state or local law does not require that you buy a container to surround the casket in the grave. However, many cemeteries require that you have such a container so that the grave will not sink in. Either a grave liner or a burial vault will satisfy these requirements.” (16 CFR 453.3(c)) A grave liner is usually the cheaper of the two. See our guide to direct burial and whether a vault is required.

Viewing, ceremony, vehicles and printing

Each of these is optional. A memorial service without the body present, held at a place of worship or at home, avoids the funeral home’s facility charges entirely.

What a simpler arrangement costs

The same NFDA study priced a funeral with viewing and cremation at a national median of $6,280 in 2023. That total still includes embalming, a viewing and a ceremony. (NFDA) Direct cremation and immediate burial remove most of those lines, and every funeral home that offers them must list a price for each on its General Price List. (16 CFR 453.2(b)(4)(iii))

The NFDA does not publish a national median for direct cremation or immediate burial. Local surveys show how much these prices vary. In the 2023 survey by the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Maryland and Environs, the least expensive direct cremation listed by funeral establishments in Baltimore City ranged from $875 to $3,615. That price usually excluded the container and urn, and sometimes the crematory fee too. (FCAME 2023 Mortuary Price Survey) Our direct cremation cost guide and cremation vs burial comparison cover these options in detail.

How to get your real number

1. Call two or three funeral homes. Under the Funeral Rule they must give you price information over the phone, and you do not have to give your name first. (FTC)
2. Ask for the General Price List when you visit. It is yours to keep. In California, funeral establishments with a website must post either the price list or the goods and services it has to include. (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §7685(b))
3. Get a separate quote from the cemetery for the plot, opening and closing, any liner or vault requirement, endowment care and marker setting.
4. Read the itemized statement before you pay. The funeral home must give you a written statement of every item you chose, its price and the total. If it adds a charge to a cash advance item, the statement must say so. (16 CFR 453.2(b)(5) and 453.3(f))

Our plain-English guide to the FTC Funeral Rule covers these rights in full.

Help with the cost

Social Security pays a one-time lump-sum death payment of $255. It goes to a widow or widower who was living in the same household or, if there is none, to certain family members entitled to benefits on the person’s record. (20 CFR 404.390)

Veterans may be buried in a VA national cemetery. The gravesite, opening and closing, perpetual care and a government headstone or marker come at no cost to the family, but funeral home charges remain the family’s expense. (VA National Cemetery Administration) Our guide to help paying for a funeral covers these benefits and FEMA assistance.

Before you sign anything, ask each funeral home for its General Price List and each cemetery for a written quote. Put the line items side by side using the table above. The difference between providers for the same service is often larger than any single line.

Sources

• National Funeral Directors Association (trade association): 2023 NFDA General Price List Study Shows Inflation Increasing Faster than the Cost of a Funeral
• National Funeral Directors Association: 2023 General Price List Study release with line-item tables (archived PDF)
• Electronic Code of Federal Regulations: 16 CFR Part 453, Funeral Industry Practices (the Funeral Rule)
• Federal Trade Commission: The FTC Funeral Rule
• Federal Trade Commission: Funeral Costs and Pricing Checklist
• Federal Trade Commission: Buying a Cemetery Site
• Funeral Consumers Alliance of Maryland and Environs: 2023 FCAME Mortuary Price Survey
• California Legislative Information: Business and Professions Code §7685
• Electronic Code of Federal Regulations: 20 CFR 404.390, Lump-sum death payment
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration: Burial and Memorial Benefits