How much does a funeral cost in the UK?

Last updated June 2026 · based on 2,430 published attended-funeral prices and 2,438 direct-cremation prices from funeral directors' own CMA Standardised Price Lists.

Typical attended funeral £3,634
Typical direct cremation £1,600

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
London338£4,270£1,605–£5,600£1,745
Greater Manchester148£3,007£1,850–£4,445£1,500
West Midlands111£3,380£1,580–£4,535£1,545
West Yorkshire99£3,652£1,970–£4,612£1,595
South Yorkshire97£3,537£1,880–£4,315£1,745
Cheshire93£3,445£1,995–£4,216£1,545
Kent88£3,958£2,550–£5,600£1,645
Essex68£3,415£1,995–£4,440£1,628
Devon63£3,325£1,605–£4,290£1,565
Hampshire63£3,888£2,145–£4,955£1,645
Tyne and Wear63£3,535£1,520–£4,225£1,622
Lancashire61£3,506£2,185–£4,025£1,598
Northern Ireland55£3,135£1,952–£4,043£1,945
Glasgow50£3,244£1,876–£4,640£1,424
Surrey50£4,281£1,795–£4,905£1,950
Buckinghamshire44£3,808£2,096–£4,869£1,545
Bristol43£3,650£2,175–£4,525£1,545
Cambridgeshire43£3,390£2,121–£4,385£1,570
Berkshire40£4,281£1,980–£4,665£1,645
East Sussex39£3,895£2,215–£4,884£1,645
Hertfordshire39£4,255£2,545–£4,775£1,645
Somerset39£3,845£2,000–£5,733£1,575
North Yorkshire37£3,490£2,170–£4,045£1,595
County Durham36£3,768£2,090–£4,880£1,995
Dorset34£3,754£2,063–£5,193£1,800
Cardiff32£3,146£1,970–£4,647£1,545
Merseyside29£3,643£1,979–£3,812£1,695
Norfolk28£3,740£2,795–£4,541£1,545
Northamptonshire27£3,620£2,209–£5,040£1,595
Nottinghamshire27£3,606£2,057–£3,880£1,545
Wiltshire27£3,705£2,176–£5,155£1,622
Edinburgh26£3,811£2,078–£4,252£1,545
North Wales26£2,985£1,700–£4,080£1,500
Derbyshire24£3,658£3,232–£3,860£1,545
Gloucestershire24£3,894£2,700–£4,446£1,745
Suffolk24£3,740£2,156–£4,840£1,645
Oxfordshire22£3,645£2,735–£4,450£1,745
Swansea22£3,106£1,945–£3,490£1,495
Ayrshire21£3,477£3,180–£4,355£1,545
Cornwall20£3,418£2,150–£3,845£1,545
Leicestershire19£3,700£1,735–£4,741£1,545
Lincolnshire18£3,535£2,080–£3,535£1,495
Shropshire18£3,072£1,930–£4,090£1,772
Cleveland17£3,230£1,870–£4,055£1,545
Staffordshire17£3,038£2,045–£3,860£1,470
Lanarkshire16£3,829£2,480–£4,035£1,545
Newport16£3,425£2,041–£4,145£1,545
Cumbria13£2,625£1,225–£3,930£1,550
East Yorkshire13£3,370£2,270–£3,935£1,645
Fife13£3,378£2,919–£4,088£1,680
Renfrewshire13£3,220£2,425–£3,976£1,500
Warwickshire13£3,945£2,680–£5,155£1,745
Worcestershire13£3,791£2,100–£4,232£1,810
Aberdeenshire12£3,525£2,800–£4,136£1,545
Perthshire11£3,680£3,128–£4,443£1,725
Bedfordshire10£3,100£1,890–£4,775£1,425
Dundee10£3,650£3,040–£3,920£1,475
Herefordshire10£4,328£2,870–£4,949£1,870
Inverness10£3,998£2,800–£4,328£1,900
Stirling9£3,829£2,040–£3,990£1,500
Dumfries and Galloway5£3,394£2,130–£3,744£1,550
Scottish Borders5£2,875
Powys1
Caithness0
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 →