OREANDA-NEWS The official income of the Russian funeral business is increasing faster than inflation, but slower than the death rate is growing. The turnover of the funeral services market in 2021 jumped by 12.5% a year, to 80.4 billion rubles.

This is the highest figure since 2013, when the growth was 14.3%. Mortality in 2021 increased by 15.1%, to 2.44 million people. The reason for the imbalance lies in the desire of Russians to save on burial, market participants say.

Some funeral companies reported to Kommersant about a noticeable increase in their income, others said that receipts remained at the same level. The market believes that the population is not ready "for an additional financial burden".

The funeral business took off the most in the Moscow region, where in 2021 the total revenue of funeral companies increased by 53%, to 6.3 billion rubles. This is an atypical growth for Russia, where the average increase was 5-15%.

In the capital, the revenue of funeral agencies reached 9.5 billion rubles. This is only 6.8% more than in 2020. At the same time, in Moscow, mortality jumped by 15% (172,000 deaths), and in the Moscow region - by 10% (125,000 deaths).

Experts explain this by the fact that in the Moscow region, market participants are more likely to conduct official business and register their revenue, while in Moscow, the bulk of income "falls on the reception of unaccounted cash by agents".