Record number of funeral apprentices: a sign of aging society!

Record number of funeral apprentices: a sign of aging society!

Wiesbaden, Deutschland - Wiesbaden - the figures in funeral system go beyond all records! Last year, 860 people chose training as a funeral specialist - more than twice as many as a decade ago! The proportion of women in this professional field is also remarkably high at 57 percent. The Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden thus shows how much the aging effect of the population affects the industry.

The increasing number of trainees also reflects reality: in 2023 there were about one million deaths in Germany, an increase of 15 percent compared to ten years ago. The funeral industry is booming, and this is also evident in the number of employees that rose to around 25,700 in 2022 - an increase of 2.6 percent compared to the previous year.

rising funeral costs and falling state support

Not only the number of burials increases, the costs also explode! Last year, prices for coffins, urns and tombstones rose by 5.8 percent, while funeral services and cemetery fees increased by 5.4 percent. For comparison: General consumer prices rose by 5.9 percent in the same period. However, the financial burdens are less and less bearing the social welfare institution - the state grants for social burials have dropped by 15.7 percent in the past ten years and amounted to 51.1 million euros in the past year.