The Parting looked at cremations:

• Cremations in the United States are on the rise. They are expected to make up half of all funerals in 2018. They were just a quarter 20 years before.
• This seems to be because those unaffiliated with a religion prefer cremations – and the number of those people are on the rise.
• Cremations allow grieving families to have more control over how their loved ones are mourned. The end product is ashes that can be placed next to a tree, hill, or waterfall without purchasing a plot.
• They can also be cheaper than burials which can require expensive coffins.
• Crematoriums are thus a thriving business. One publicly traded company has thousands of locations across the US and is worth over $5 billion.
• It costs about $1,000 for a facility to cremate a body.
• Sometimes customers will be charged less because the real margins are in add-on products/services such as caskets, flowers, and embalming.
• Others can cost a lot more. The FTC allows funeral parlours to keep their pricing secret in most cases, making it difficult for grieving family members to find the most affordable option.

Read more about the business, and find a deeper analysis of industry pricing over here.

Source: The Parting