Funeral Costs in Pennsylvania

What a funeral costs in Pennsylvania

Nationally, the median cost of an adult funeral with viewing and burial was $8,300 in 2023, and a funeral with viewing and cremation was $6,280, according to the National Funeral Directors Association's General Price List study. Those figures cover the funeral home's goods and services only. The cemetery plot, interment, a marker, flowers, and the obituary are all extra.

NFDA publishes medians by census division, not by state. Pennsylvania sits in the Middle Atlantic division, where the 2023 median was $8,573 for a funeral with viewing and burial and $6,498 for a funeral with viewing and cremation. Any page quoting a precise Pennsylvania statewide average is estimating; no credible body publishes one.

Prices vary widely between funeral homes in the same county, so the itemized national medians below are most useful as a benchmark while you read a price list.

Key itemized national medians (NFDA, 2023)

• Nondeclinable basic services fee, $2,495
• Metal burial casket, $2,500
• Vault, $1,695
• Embalming, $845
• Third-party cremation fee, $400

Pennsylvania's own rules

Embalming is never absolutely required in Pennsylvania. If final disposition does not occur within 24 hours, the body must be embalmed, placed in a sealed casket, or refrigerated. If refrigeration is used, disposition must happen within 5 hours of removal from refrigeration, and public viewing is discouraged after 36 hours of refrigeration (49 Pa. Code section 13.201). Shipping by common carrier beyond 24 hours' reach requires embalming or a sealed container (28 Pa. Code section 1.23).

Pennsylvania does not require a licensed funeral director for final arrangements. State law contemplates disposition permits being issued to others (35 Pa. Stat. section 450.504), and Pennsylvania is not on the Funeral Consumers Alliance's list of nine states that require a director.

Home burial on private property is possible. A permit from the local registrar or the State Registrar of Vital Statistics is required before burial (35 Pa. Stat. section 450.504), county and town zoning still applies, and recording the burial location with the property deed is a recommended practice.

Your rights under the Funeral Rule

The FTC's Funeral Rule applies in Pennsylvania as it does everywhere in the country. A funeral home must give you a written, itemized General Price List that is yours to keep, and must give prices over the phone without asking who you are. You can decline packages and buy only what you want, supply a casket or urn from anywhere without a handling fee, and choose cremation with no casket at all. Embalming is not required by federal law, and the price list must say so next to the embalming price.

Ways families keep costs kind

A few honest levers make the largest difference, and none of them make the goodbye smaller.

• Direct cremation, followed by a memorial you hold yourself, had a national median of $2,455 to $2,550 in the NFDA's 2021 study, depending on who provides the container.
• For cremation, an alternative container (fiberboard, cardboard, or unfinished wood) can stand in for a casket. The national median was $160 in 2023, next to $2,500 for a metal casket.
• Call two or three funeral homes and ask for prices by phone. The Funeral Rule requires them to answer, and medians hide wide local ranges.
• Make the printed program yourself. Our free program maker replaces the printed package line on the price list, which had a national median of $195 in 2023.