FSE recently released our 2nd study into the real average cost of a funeral in the UK in 2025.
Working with funeral sector trade body The National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF) we released ‘What is the real average cost of a funeral in the UK 2025’ report and some of the headlines from that report are shared here.
The ‘Cost of dying’ average cost of a funeral used in the media and across the later life sector, as fuelled predominantly by the Sun Life Cost of Dying report, remains overstated, inaccurate, and misleading. It has been a useful barometer down the years, but it no longer represents the average cost of a funeral. It simply produces an average cost of a fusion of a traditional burial and cremation funeral, which is increasingly outdated.
In Sun Life’s 2025 report we saw methodology that is fundamentally wrong and based on flawed data and assumptions. Their use of the term ‘simple attended funeral’ is also misleading and not consistent to CMA defined standards. This is something that is of particular concern and frustration to SAIF and the funeral sector generally.
Sun Life reported an average figure of £4,285 built into ‘the cost of dying’. By using more accurate funeral incidence data, removing Doctors’ fees (which are included in their methodology but no longer apply), and including direct cremation – the average funeral cost in the UK in 2025 would actually be £3,746 – some £539 less than is reported.
So why does this matter?
It matters because consumers, at the point of sale of Over 50s life insurance or in the funeral planning journey, are not being given clear and accurate information and data. Hence, they may potentially buy more insurance cover than they need and are not always being given sufficiently clear guidance as to the types of funeral available and hence true funeral cost options that exist. Who needs £4,000 of Over 50s life insurance cover to make provision for your funeral if your preference is a direct cremation funeral, where a high quality fully guaranteed direct cremation funeral plan, is available to buy today at around £1,700. Many providers also now offer good value, long term payment options for those consumers who cannot afford to pay in one lump and for whom Over 50s is a current solution.
FSE have lobbied the FCA about this issue as we are concerned that current insurance provider practices in respect of the use of ‘average’ funeral costs – which are widely used in Over 50s market and by some funeral plan providers – may breach FCAs Consumer Duty standards. The Sun Life ‘Cost of Dying’ report may present an average funeral cost – but it is not the average cost of a funeral. We fully expect the FCA to consider this as part of their Pure Protection market review. In 2026 we will continue to work with SAIF to highlight this ongoing issue’.
From our extensive survey work we know that the current average amount spent by consumers on a funeral in the UK in 2025 remains under £4,000, which is a figure that has been stabilised by the growth in direct cremation (which now accounts for around 15% of all funerals) and consumer-driven moderation. FSE fully expects, even with inflation driven price increases and margin pressures, that a better-informed UK consumer armed with ever more options to meet their own preferences will take the choices to keep this cost down to not pay more than they or their families want, and will be supported to do so by their expert local funeral director or a new breed of online funeral providers. The long-term narrative of the ‘constant rising cost of the average UK funeral’ is obsolete. Average no longer exists.