How much does a funeral cost in the UK?

Last updated June 2026 · based on 2,954 published attended-funeral prices and 2,782 direct-cremation prices from funeral directors' own CMA Standardised Price Lists.

Typical attended funeral £3,648
Typical direct cremation £1,595

The attended-funeral figure is an estimated all-in: the funeral director's own charges plus a typical crematorium fee. Direct cremation already includes the cremation fee. Burial plots, doctors' or minister's fees and a wake are extra.

Average funeral cost by area

Funeral prices vary widely across the UK — and between firms in the same town. The table below shows the median published price for each county area we cover. Click an area to compare every funeral director there side by side.

AreaPriced FDs Attended (median)Attended range Direct cremation
London373£4,281£1,767–£5,600£1,745
Greater Manchester164£3,522£2,035–£4,445£1,495
West Midlands137£3,390£1,400–£4,535£1,545
West Yorkshire126£3,674£1,970–£6,312£1,550
Kent110£3,938£2,362–£6,234£1,645
Cheshire109£3,445£1,613–£4,216£1,545
South Yorkshire105£3,546£1,950–£4,575£1,745
Tyne and Wear89£3,535£2,073–£4,642£1,645
Essex81£3,430£1,950–£4,440£1,628
Hampshire78£3,702£2,365–£4,955£1,635
Lancashire74£3,499£2,610–£5,192£1,545
Devon71£3,505£1,950–£4,290£1,565
Northern Ireland65£3,018£2,167–£4,317£1,945
Glasgow62£3,240£1,950–£4,640£1,399
Surrey59£4,460£2,640–£4,905£1,950
Hertfordshire54£4,190£2,694–£4,775£1,622
Cambridgeshire52£3,435£1,950–£4,385£1,545
East Sussex48£4,037£2,215–£4,884£1,645
Somerset48£3,592£2,405–£5,805£1,545
Bristol46£3,695£1,950–£4,525£1,545
Buckinghamshire46£3,860£2,790–£4,869£1,545
Berkshire44£4,260£2,410–£4,665£1,645
North Yorkshire43£3,415£2,490–£4,295£1,545
County Durham41£3,701£2,410–£4,880£1,995
Derbyshire41£3,622£2,720–£4,744£1,545
Edinburgh40£3,950£2,930–£4,642£1,600
Norfolk40£3,740£2,795–£5,469£1,545
Cardiff38£3,210£1,910–£4,647£1,545
Dorset36£3,621£2,752–£5,193£1,745
Northamptonshire35£3,761£1,549–£5,754£1,595
Merseyside34£3,643£1,950–£4,056£1,545
Wiltshire34£3,705£1,950–£5,675£1,595
Suffolk33£3,606£1,950–£4,840£1,645
Swansea32£2,965£1,917–£4,115£1,495
North Wales31£3,028£2,125–£4,432£1,500
Ayrshire29£3,477£2,340–£4,855£1,555
Gloucestershire29£3,967£3,136–£4,649£1,790
Nottinghamshire28£3,585£1,950–£4,310£1,545
Shropshire26£3,072£1,950–£4,326£1,560
Cleveland25£3,356£2,400–£4,055£1,545
Oxfordshire25£3,715£1,295–£4,610£1,695
Leicestershire24£3,708£1,950–£4,741£1,545
Cornwall23£3,369£2,825–£3,845£1,545
Staffordshire22£3,300£2,536–£4,065£1,470
East Yorkshire21£3,510£2,270–£4,255£1,645
Lincolnshire19£3,535£2,080–£3,535£1,495
Fife18£3,782£3,013–£4,642£1,748
Lanarkshire18£3,828£2,039–£4,200£1,545
Newport18£3,425£1,950–£4,145£1,545
Warwickshire17£3,945£3,210–£5,155£1,745
Inverness15£3,998£2,913–£4,951£1,950
Cumbria14£3,040£2,077–£3,930£1,572
Renfrewshire14£3,329£2,485–£4,201£1,450
Worcestershire14£3,791£1,950–£4,410£1,645
Aberdeenshire13£3,525£3,300–£4,136£1,545
Dundee13£3,835£2,415–£4,642£1,475
Perthshire13£3,680£2,245–£4,443£1,725
Stirling11£3,829£2,240–£3,990£1,399
Bedfordshire10£3,678£2,700–£4,775£1,425
Herefordshire10£4,328£3,435–£4,949£1,870
Scottish Borders10£4,215£3,600–£4,642£1,750
Dumfries and Galloway7£3,444£3,045–£3,874£1,558
Powys1
Caithness0
Shetland0
Western Isles0

“—” means we don't yet hold enough verified prices in that area to publish a reliable median (our threshold is four). We add more as funeral directors' lists are processed.

How we work this out

Since 2021, every UK funeral director must publish a Standardised Price List in a common format set by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). We collect those published lists, extract the headline figures automatically — at no cost, using open-source tools rather than paid services — and run automated checks for obvious errors before anything is shown. A price is only published once it passes those checks. We also run an ongoing accuracy programme that re-reads a sample of source price lists to measure how closely our extracted figures match the originals, so the numbers above stay trustworthy.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a funeral cost in the UK?

A traditional attended funeral typically costs around £2,500–£3,000 in the funeral director's own charges, before third-party fees such as the cremation or burial. A direct (unattended) cremation is far cheaper — usually £1,200–£1,800, with the cremation fee already included. Prices vary widely between firms in the same town, so comparing published price lists is worth it.

Why do funeral prices vary so much?

Funeral directors set their own charges, and there's no standard price. The gap between the cheapest and most expensive director in a single area is often more than £1,000 for the same service — which is exactly why comparing published CMA price lists side by side pays off.

What's included in the headline price?

Our attended-funeral figure is an estimated all-in cost: the funeral director's own charges plus a typical crematorium cremation fee. Direct-cremation prices already include the cremation fee. Other third-party costs (burial plots, doctors' or minister's fees, a wake) are extra and vary locally.

Is direct cremation cheaper than an attended funeral?

Yes, considerably. A direct cremation has no service or mourners present, so it avoids many of the costs of an attended funeral — typically £1,200–£1,800 versus £2,500–£3,000+ for the director's charges on an attended funeral.

How do you work out these figures?

Every figure on this page is the median of real, published prices taken from funeral directors' own CMA Standardised Price Lists. We extract them automatically at no cost, run automated error checks before publishing, and only show an area average where we hold at least four verified prices.

Compare funeral directors near you →