The funeral business is a multi-billion dollar operation nationwide and the numbers keep climbing, according to the United States Census Bureau.
The business of death has been kept mainly in the the hands of privately owned businesses and a handful are owned by publicly-traded corporations.
As of December 2014, approximately 86 percent of funeral homes in the United States are privately owned by families or individuals while only 14 percent are owned by corporations, according to the National Funeral Directors Association.
In 2017 there were 19,322 funeral homes nationwide and in 2012 there were around 130 establishments recorded in Virginia.
As of May 2017, 600 people were employed as funeral directors in Virginia with an average wage of $54,610, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A lot goes in to the funeral business, a lot more than one might expect.
Funeral directors go through training for 2-3 years to learn the process of embalming, client care and all the details that go into creating a celebration of life service: the funeral.
Funeral Director Marcella Williams at Altmeyer Funeral Homes said a big part of her job is to anticipate the needs of the families and help them plan a service that would celebrate their loved one.
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She said more and more women are entering the funeral industry and she thinks that has helped take away some of the stigma of what a funeral director is like.
Breaking down the costs
Each funeral home is different and there are 16 funeral homes between Hampton and Newport News.
They offer a wide variety of services and accommodations, but there are a few constants that all funeral homes must adhere to.
For example, the cost of the medical examiner’s fee is $50 across the board and the death certificate cost $12.
Each price list, which all funeral homes are legally required to provide, contains cost ranges for caskets, cremation urns, basic services fees, embalming fees and funeral service packages.
In 2017, the average cost of an adult funeral with viewing and burial was $7,360, according to the NFDA.
In 2014 it was $7,181.
If the funeral includes cremation instead of burial, the 2017 cost was $6,260 and in 2014, $6,078.
While the costs haven’t budged too much in the past couple years, the rates of cremation vs. burial have shifted.
The NFDA reports that in 2010, 53.3 percent of people opted for burial and in 2015 only 45.2 percent.
Those who opted for cremation stood at 40.4 percent in 2010 and 47.9 percent in 2015.
The 2018 cremation rate is projected to be 53.5 percent and the burial rate is projected to be 40.5 percent, according to the 2018 NFDA Cremation & Burial Report.
One thing Williams suggests doing when planning a funeral is to “shop around” and see what the other funeral homes in the area provide.
Below is an interactive map that shows where each funeral home is in Hampton and Newport News and the costs of their basic services.
Of the 16 funeral homes 15 were able to provide cost information —one was not immediately available.
