Posted 9 августа 2021,, 09:06

Published 9 августа 2021,, 09:06

Modified 24 декабря 2022,, 22:37

Updated 24 декабря 2022,, 22:37

Families of the deceased began to save money on funerals

Families of the deceased began to save money on funerals

9 августа 2021, 09:06
Фото: Бизнесонлайн
Against the background of a significant increase in the mortality rate of the population in Russia, funeral agencies report a sharp decline in citizens' spending on organizing the funeral of relatives.
Сюжет
Pandemic

According to Kommersant, citing Rosstat data, the mortality rate in the country in the first half of this year increased by 16% (from 946.6 thousand to 1.1 million people), and the revenue of ritual agencies increased by only 9%, to 36. RUB 9 billion

“Citizens are trying to save on additional and memorial services, especially in the regions”, - the message says.

Experts note that Rosstat data may not necessarily be relevant due to the high share of “gray” services in the ritual market. Experts estimate the level of uncontrolled cash settlements in this area at 70-90%. Taking into account all expenses, the real revenue of funeral homes could be four times higher than the official statistics. According to experts, in fact, the funerals could earn not 36.9, but 140 billion rubles in the first half of the year. There is a large corruption component in this amount: agents of funeral homes buy “death addresses” from hospital and emergency services workers, and then “remove” these costs from the relatives of the deceased.

In 2020, Russians spent 34.07 billion rubles on funerals. Revenue decreased by 1%. Market participants indicate that the cost of burial has decreased for families: if before the pandemic people spent about 50 thousand rubles on funerals, now - no more than 30 thousand. More often than not, people postpone the installation of monuments and fences "for later".

This is due to a general drop in the income of the population: people can no longer afford to organize a "funeral of the highest quality" for their loved ones and are forced to save on everything. Many are increasingly opting for cremation, which is 40% cheaper than burial in the ground. In St. Petersburg, the share of cremations increased from 65 to 70%. But in the country as a whole, where there are very few crematoria, the share of cremations does not exceed 10%.

In an interview with Sputnik radio, President of the Union of Funeral Organizations and Crematoria of Russia Pavel Kodysh explained that there is no purposeful savings on funeral services, people just started to save on everything.

“Citizens save on everything. They save on coffins and delivery, so there are more cremations. It is much cheaper. Also, burying the urn is cheaper. This is a general trend, it is everywhere now. If earlier people went to restaurants and made purchases, now this is not the case either”, - said Pavel Kodysh.

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