Final Purchase, Growing Demand: The Canadian Funeral Services Industry

The funeral services industry touches, inevitably, on everyone's life. In Canada, this is reflected to a great degree by aspects of the industry's economic performance, as well as by the numerous regulations regarding public health and consumer protection. This paper draws from a number of sources to offer a wide-ranging picture of the industry and an outlook toward its future.The paper begins with an outline of the regulatory environment within which the Canadian funeral services industry operates. It then analyses its financial structure.

The industry is characterized by above-average profitability and revenue growth, as well as by low rates of exit and entry and rather limited concentration. The section on industry prices illustrates the potential for deriving average funeral costs from aggregate industry data. This is followed by a brief exposition of market demand, which in this industry's context, is measured by the number of deaths. Demographic projections conclusively point to a robust economic outlook for funeral services, particularly in light of the ageing of the Canadian population.