Average funeral costs vary by over £4,500 across UK, report finds

Bereaved families are facing a growing “funeral cost postcode lottery”, with a widening price gap between the most and least expensive locations, a report has found.

Across the UK, the average cost of a funeral is £3,757, the Royal London national funeral cost index found.

The gap between the average cost of the most expensive and least expensive locations has increased to over £4,500 this year, compared with £3,500 last year, the report found.

It said: “This all suggests the effects of the funeral cost postcode lottery are becoming more extreme.”

Kensal Green in London was found to have the most expensive average funeral cost, at £7,489.

This was £4,539 higher than the average funeral cost in Belfast, at £2,950.

The report also found that one in eight (12%) people spending money on a funeral had taken on debt to pay for it.

On average, they borrowed £1,744 of debt to pay for a funeral – just over a third (34%) more than in 2014, when average funeral debt was £1,305.

Royal London’s funeral cost expert, Louise Eaton-Terry, said: “High funeral costs have left many families taking on a mountain of debt, with our research showing a huge increase in the amount being borrowed by the bereaved over the last five years.

“More support needs to be offered to families struggling to pay for funeral costs, and as a result being forced into debt.”

The index is published in partnership with the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM), which collected cremation and burial costs.

Two surveys of over 3,000 people in total across the UK were also carried out.

Here are the five most expensive locations for a funeral in the UK according to Royal London’s research, with the average funeral cost:

1. Kensal Green, London, £7,489
2. Enfield, London, £6,143
3. Beckenham, London, £5,636
4. Southgate, London, £5,327
5. Golders Green, London, £5,224

And here are the five least expensive locations for a funeral in the UK according to Royal London’s research, with the average funeral cost:

1. Belfast, Northern Ireland, £2,950
2. Paisley, Scotland, £3,114
3. Glasgow West, Scotland, £3,126
4. Alford, Lincolnshire, £3,135
5. Bridgwater, Somerset, £3,152