{"id":331602,"date":"2025-08-09T22:18:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T22:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/331602\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T22:18:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T22:18:12","slug":"dying-in-spain-is-getting-more-expensive-by-the-day-euro-weekly-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/331602\/","title":{"rendered":"Dying in Spain is getting more expensive \u2018by the day\u2019 \u00ab Euro Weekly News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n By Olivier Acu\u00f1a Barba<\/a><\/strong> \u2022
\n Published: 09 Aug 2025 \u2022 20:16
\n \u2022 2\u00a0minutes\u00a0read\n <\/p>\n

\n Is it possible that dying could one day be a luxury or are we there already? | Credit: Old Town Tourist\/Shutterstock <\/p>\n

Thousands of businesses and jobs are sustained by one certainty: you are going to die. An unassailable truth that hits home for more than 400,000 people each year in Spain, according to El Pa\u00eds.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

They, or their relatives, have more than paid for their final journey, probably through funeral insurance, which 46 per cent of the Spanish population have, according to Spain\u2019s National Institute (INE). And of course, insurance is becoming increasingly more costly.<\/p>\n

With that, so is dying in Spain. It is getting more expensive \u201cby the day\u201d. This past year, the cost of getting buried has risen 4.2 per cent, doubling the rate of inflation, which was 2.1 per cent over the last 12 months.<\/p>\n

Most Read on Euro Weekly News<\/p>\n

A basic burial today costs over 4,000 euros. The cost, logically, gets more expensive if you customise the experience, and depending on the type of ceremony, the city, and whether you add extra services, the type of urn, and so on.<\/p>\n

A 30% rise in one decade<\/p>\n

Over the last ten years, the price of these services has increased by more than 30 per cent, far outpacing wage growth, which has risen by only 15 per cent, according to El Pa\u00eds.<\/p>\n

In large cities like Madrid or Barcelona, prices are significantly higher than in rural areas, where competition is lower and fixed costs (such as funeral<\/a> homes or cemetery maintenance) are distributed among fewer services.<\/p>\n

The funeral sector in Spain has a market capitalisation of about 1.5 billion euros per year, based on 400,000 services.<\/p>\n

El Pa\u00eds says prices are not always transparent, and it would seem funeral homes exploit grieving families who are usually in a vulnerable state of mind. Many might not want to haggle, considering that it is the death of a loved one, and they want to bid them the best farewell possible. Families wish for their deceased relatives to RIP genuinely.<\/p>\n

No energy to haggle or bargain hunt<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen someone dies, you don\u2019t have the energy to haggle or look for the best offer. You trust the funeral<\/a> home to guide you, and that\u2019s where you can end up paying more than necessary,\u201d Mar\u00eda, a 45-year-old woman who recently organised her father\u2019s funeral in Valencia, told El Pa\u00eds.<\/p>\n

Cremation, on average, is about 1,000 euros cheaper. According to official figures, 45 per cent of deaths in Spain in 2024 ended in cremation, a figure that has steadily been increasing.<\/p>\n

With the belief they need floral arrangements, catering and other niceties, families in Spain continue to face the challenge of saying goodbye to their loved ones without affecting their finances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Olivier Acu\u00f1a Barba \u2022 Published: 09 Aug 2025 \u2022 20:16 \u2022 2\u00a0minutes\u00a0read Is it possible that dying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-331602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115001131633035946","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}