UK faces a 'cost of dying' crisis as funeral costs climb

As reported by the BBC, taxpayer-funded funerals are rising rapidly, driven by increasing poverty, deprivation, and more people dying either alone or without relatives who can afford the cost. With an average of 12 taxpayer-funded funerals taking place every day in the UK, the annual cost to the government has reached £6 million¹.

We have analysed poverty rates from official government and local council sources and regional funeral costs to reveal which UK cities are experiencing the biggest cost-of-dying crisis.

Birmingham suffers most from the 'cost-of-dying' burden 

We used a normalisation method - a technique used to rescale data to a standard range - to identify which UK cities present the greatest financial burden when it comes to dying, factoring in both local poverty rates and funeral costs. Birmingham emerged as the city with the highest overall burden, closely followed by London.

While Birmingham ranked highest in terms of financial strain due to its combination of high funeral costs and the highest poverty rate, London remains the most expensive city for funerals. The average cost of a funeral in the capital stands at £4,181, 22% more than in Birmingham, the second most expensive city.

The 10 most populated cities ranked by 'cost-of-dying' burden

Life insurance can ease some of the burden

According to Sun Life’s research, while 68% of people make some financial provision for their funeral, only 56% manage to save enough to cover the full cost. As a result, one in five families (18%) face significant financial pressure when arranging a loved one’s funeral².

Alicia Hempsted
Insurance Expert

Planning ahead can be painful but necessary

Many people don’t realise just how the cost of dying can add up; from funeral fees and burial or cremation costs to flowers, transport, and legal bills. Understandably, many of us put off thinking about it.

Planning ahead can make a huge difference - whether that’s taking out life insurance to help your loved ones cover the costs, putting money aside, or simply having conversations with family. It’s about making sure that when the time comes, your loved ones aren’t left with a financial burden on top of their grief.

Now more than ever, as the cost-of-dying crisis deepens, financial protection isn’t just sensible, but essential.

MoneySuperMarket data reveals that life insurance premiums can start from just £2.67 per month³. A policy can ensure that future wishes are met and help families avoid the distress of navigating state-funded funerals or facing the costs of a funeral while also managing the emotional and financial impact of loss.

<sup>Sources
1. BBC
2. Sun Life Report
3. Using the 51st percentile of cheapest premiums quotes, based on single non smoker policyholder aged under 30, with £100,000 of cover over a ten year term with a decreasing term. Quoted between April 2024 and April 2025</sup>

^{Methodology 
To find the most expensive places to die in the UK, we looked at funeral costs and poverty rates across the ten most populated cities.
Funeral costs were taken from the top five listings on Funeral Guide in each city. We calculated the average cost of an attended burial, including a coffin, transportation, and a service.
For cities like Glasgow, where fewer listings were available, additional prices were sourced from funeral company websites.} 

^{Poverty rates were gathered from official and local council sources:}

• _{Manchester: Greater Manchester Mayor's Charity}

• _{London: Trust for London}

• _{Sheffield: Sheffield City Council}

• _{Leeds: Leeds Observatory}

• _{Bradford: Bradford City Council}

• _{Glasgow: Glasgow City Council}

• _{Liverpool: Liverpool City Council}

• _{Edinburgh: Edinburgh City Council}

• _{Bristol: Bristol City Council}

^Formulas: 

^{Normalised poverty:}

^{To fairly compare poverty rates between cities, we converted each city’s poverty percentage into a score between 0 and 1, using a method called normalisation. In our data, the lowest poverty rate was 16% (Bristol), and the highest was 43% (Birmingham). This means Birmingham received a normalised score of 1, and Bristol received a score of 0. Other cities were scaled proportionally in between using the following formula:} 

^{Normalised poverty: Normalised Poverty = (City’s Poverty Rate − Lowest Poverty Rate) ÷ (Highest Poverty Rate − Lowest Poverty Rate)} 

^{Normalised cost:}

^{As with poverty rates, we used normalisation to convert each city’s funeral cost into a score between 0 and 1. This lets us fairly compare funeral expenses across cities and combine them with poverty data in the Burden Score. We used the formula:}

^{Normalised Cost = (City’s Funeral Cost − Lowest Funeral Cost) ÷ (Highest Funeral Cost − Lowest Funeral Cost)}

^{Burden score:}

^{Each city’s Burden Score was then calculated using the following formula to give equal weight to the cost of dying and the financial vulnerability of the local population.}

^{Burden Score = 0.5 × Normalised Funeral Cost + 0.5 × Normalised Poverty Rate}