Average Cost of Cremation by State

The national picture, briefly

The National Funeral Directors Association, the funeral homes' own trade association, reports in its 2023 Member General Price List Study a median of $8,300 for a funeral with a casket and burial, up from $7,848 two years earlier. The same study reports a median of $6,280 for a funeral with cremation, including an alternative cremation casket and urn, up from $5,810. Both come from a survey NFDA mailed to 5,219 member funeral home owners in July 2023, to which 809 responded, so they record what NFDA's responding member firms charge rather than what any family paid. Neither median includes interment in a cemetery, monument or grave marker costs, or cash advances such as flowers or an obituary. Both are national medians, not the figure for any one state. The Cremation Association of North America (CANA) — the cremation industry’s own trade association — reports in its 2026 Annual Statistics Report that the US cremation rate was 62.8% in 2025, up from 57.2% in 2021, and projects 69.1% by 2030. CANA sells its state-by-state tables to members and its public page carries no state figure, so this site states no state cremation rate.

No state statute sets what a cremation costs, and we found no published source for any state’s cremation prices as of September 2026 that is not a funeral provider, a trade body funded by them, or a site paid to refer customers to one. This table therefore carries no price column and no cremation-rate column. What each state page does document is the waiting period, who may authorise a cremation, the scattering rules and the regulator, each cited to the state code.

A date means every citation in that row has been checked against the statute. A dash means it has not been checked yet.

Notes on how these figures were compiled

• The written General Price List. Under the FTC Funeral Rule a funeral provider must give a printed, itemized general price list, to keep, to anyone who inquires in person — not only on request, but as soon as discussion begins of prices, the overall type of funeral or disposition, or specific goods or services, and whether that discussion happens at the funeral home or elsewhere (16 C.F.R. §453.2(b)(4)(i)(A)–(B)). A telephone inquiry is treated differently: the provider must tell a caller any accurate information from its price lists, and any other readily available information that reasonably answers the question, but the duty to hand over the printed list runs to people who inquire in person (16 C.F.R. §453.2(b)(1) and §453.2(b)(4)(i)(A)). Prices for the same disposition differ between providers in the same area; no source for the size of that spread is cited here.
• Direct cremation is a real, dignified option. It’s the cheapest path in every state on this list, and the family can hold any memorial they want separately, in any setting, on their own schedule.
• Cemetery costs are optional for cremation. Scattering, home retention, and inurnment in a columbarium niche are priced separately from a traditional cemetery plot and burial; no source comparing the two is cited here.
• Waiting periods vary, and several states impose none. Each state page states that state’s rule with its citation. California sets no minimum wait before cremation, and Fla. Stat. §497.607(1) runs the other way — it requires the cremation to be performed within 48 hours of a time agreed in writing, a deadline rather than a wait. Where a state does impose one, it is short relative to the cost-driving factor in most bills, which is the optional service.

Want to understand the bigger picture first?

If you’re weighing cremation against burial generally, start with our national-level explainers:

• Cremation vs. Burial Cost by State — these cremation figures set against the national burial median, state by state.
• Cremation vs. Burial Cost (2026): Which Is Cheaper?
• How Much Does a Funeral Cost?
• Do You Need Final Expense Insurance? What the Policies Say — what the policies cover and what they cost, for pre-funding a cremation.

Educational information only — not financial, legal, or funeral planning advice. Prices and regulations change. The FTC Funeral Rule’s price-disclosure requirements are set out above. Sources: National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) 2023 General Price List Survey; Cremation Association of North America (CANA) 2026 Annual Statistics Report (https://www.cremationassociation.org/industrystatistics.html); Federal Trade Commission Funeral Rule; state funeral and crematory regulators.