Using real data, this study shows what funeral services in Barcelona are like: what families choose, how much they pay, where they say goodbye and who takes care of everything. We have added official figures from Idescat (the Statistical Institute of Catalonia), Cementiris de Barcelona (the company that runs the city's municipal cemeteries) and the OCU (the Spanish consumers' association).
We only publish aggregated, anonymous percentages and medians. You are welcome to cite and reuse the data with a link to this page.
Out of every 10 families, almost 9 chose cremation, and half paid less than €2,994 for the funeral service. Most families called the funeral home on the same day as the death and, in 55% of cases, a son or daughter took care of everything.
Half of families paid less than €2,994 for the complete funeral service. The most common choice, direct cremation without a wake, cost a median of €2,395; with a wake, cremation rose to €3,672.
The median is the price that splits families in two: half paid less and half paid more. It is more representative than the average because extreme cases do not distort it.
| Type of service | Minimum | P25 | Median | P75 | Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct cremation (no wake) | €2,195 | €2,295 | €2,395 | €2,495 | €4,650 |
| Cremation with farewell or mass | €2,395 | €2,395 | €2,693 | €3,295 | €3,295 |
| Cremation with wake | €3,495 | €3,595 | €3,672 | €3,895 | €4,743 |
| Burial with wake | €2,615 | €2,871 | €3,730 | €4,289 | €4,445 |
| All funeral services | — | €2,395 | €2,994 | €3,684 | — |
Comparing the two most common options, a wake adds €1,277 to a cremation (53% more), taking the median from €2,395 to €3,672. The service with a wake includes a room at the funeral parlour for up to 24 hours; for reference, the OCU put the cost of renting a funeral parlour room at €546 for 24 hours (2021 figure).
Prices fall into two very clear groups: 38% of services cost between €2,000 and €2,499, the range for direct cremation, and 30% between €3,500 and €3,999, the range for services with a wake.
Horizontal axis: lower limit of each price band, in euros.
| Price band | % of services |
|---|---|
| Under €2,000 | 3% |
| €2,000-2,499 | 38% |
| €2,500-2,999 | 10% |
| €3,000-3,499 | 8% |
| €3,500-3,999 | 30% |
| €4,000-4,999 | 10% |
| €5,000 or more | 3% |
For a national reference point, the OCU puts the cost of a simple burial in Spain at more than €3,700, and the average cost of a coffin at around €1,200 (OCU, 2023).
88% of families chose cremation. That is much higher than the 58.15% cremation rate recorded by Cementiris de Barcelona in 2024 and the “more than 40%” that the OCU estimates for Spain as a whole.
The three figures cover different populations (the services in this study, those of Barcelona's municipal cemeteries and a national estimate), so the comparison is only a guide.
| Source | Cremation | Base |
|---|---|---|
| This study (2025-2026) | 88% | Funeral services in the study |
| Cementiris de Barcelona (2024) | 58.15% | 13,851 services |
| Spain, OCU estimate (2023) | more than 40% | Deaths |
The trend is also visible in the official figures: Cementiris de Barcelona carried out 8,054 cremations and 5,797 burials in 2024, and attributes the shift to social trends and generational turnover (Cementiris de Barcelona).
Direct cremation, without a wake, is the most commonly chosen service, accounting for 42% of all services. It is followed by cremation with a wake (28%) and burial with a wake (9%).
| Type of service | % |
|---|---|
| Direct cremation (no wake) | 42% |
| Cremation with wake | 28% |
| Burial with wake | 9% |
| Cremation with farewell or mass | 7% |
| Funeral paperwork | 5% |
| Exhumation and cremation | 5% |
| Repatriation | 2% |
| Burial without wake | 2% |
In total, 41% of funeral services included a wake and 15% added a farewell, mass or ceremony. “Paperwork” refers to one-off formalities, such as the certificate of last wishes (which shows whether the person left a will).
Roques Blanques was the most frequently used crematorium, handling 50% of the cremations where the crematorium was recorded, followed by Montjuïc (27%). For wakes, the Ronda de Dalt funeral parlour was the most frequently used, with 82% of the wakes where the venue was recorded.
| Crematorium | % |
|---|---|
| Roques Blanques (El Papiol) | 50% |
| Montjuïc (Barcelona) | 27% |
| Outside Barcelona province | 14% |
| Others in the metropolitan area | 9% |
Cementiris de Barcelona runs the city's nine cemeteries and the Montjuïc crematorium, and its 2024 sustainability report highlights growing competition from funeral companies with their own crematoria in the metropolitan area (Cementiris de Barcelona). This study's figures point the same way: Roques Blanques handled more cremations than Montjuïc.
67% of deaths occurred in hospital. 15% were handled by the Instituto Anatómico Forense (the forensic institute, when a court is involved); 12% occurred at home and 6% in a care home.
| Place | % |
|---|---|
| Hospital | 67% |
| Forensic institute (court involvement) | 15% |
| Home | 12% |
| Care home | 6% |
In 55% of cases, a son or daughter took care of everything, with daughters doing so more often than sons (daughters 33%, sons 22%). A spouse or partner arranged only 5% of funerals.
“Other relatives and close friends” groups together parents, nephews and nieces, friends and representatives, so that no individual case can be identified.
| Relationship | % |
|---|---|
| Daughter | 33% |
| Son | 23% |
| Other relatives and close friends | 18% |
| Brother or sister | 13% |
| In-laws | 10% |
| Spouse or partner | 5% |
This fits the profile of the deceased: 31% were widowed and 28% were single, so the arrangements fall mainly to the next generation.
82% of families called on the same day as the death, and 22% of calls came in on a Saturday or Sunday. That is why being available 24 hours a day, every day, is not an extra: it is what families need.
| When the family called | % |
|---|---|
| Same day | 82% |
| Next day | 3% |
| 2 or more days | 15% |
| Day | % |
|---|---|
| Monday | 10% |
| Tuesday | 27% |
| Wednesday | 15% |
| Thursday | 20% |
| Friday | 7% |
| Saturday | 7% |
| Sunday | 15% |
The last quarter only includes data up to 8 October 2026.
| Quarter | % |
|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 10% |
| Q2 2025 | 7% |
| Q3 2025 | 20% |
| Q4 2025 | 7% |
| Q1 2026 | 29% |
| Q2 2026 | 12% |
| Q3 2026 | 12% |
| Q4 2026 | 2% |
In Catalonia, January is the month with the most deaths (7,789 in 2024) and September the month with the fewest (4,748), according to Idescat.
Do you need help now?
We are here for you 24 hours a day, every day. Call us and we will guide you, with no obligation.
Families requested the full death certificate (“certificado literal”) a median of 10 days after the death, and half of the requests were made between 5 and 24 days afterwards. It is the document that banks, insurers and notaries ask for, so it is worth allowing for this time.
1 in 5 families contacted the funeral home before the death to arrange everything in advance. Most of them were planning a direct cremation.
Planning ahead lets you compare options calmly and make decisions without the pressure of the first few hours.
31% of the deceased were widowed, 28% were single, a further 28% were married and 13% were divorced or separated.
| Marital status | % |
|---|---|
| Widowed | 31% |
| Single | 28% |
| Married | 28% |
| Divorced or separated | 13% |
For reference, the most common age at death in Catalonia in 2024 was 90 (2,954 deaths), according to Idescat.
In 92% of cases, the ashes and documents were delivered in Barcelona and its province. The rest were sent to other Spanish regions (5%) or abroad (3%).
Barcelona records around 15,200 deaths a year, and its death rate (9.02‰ in 2024) is higher than the Catalan average (8.37‰), partly because it has a particularly elderly population: 65,585 residents are aged 85 or over. Across Catalonia as a whole, 67,524 deaths were registered in 2024.
Our estimate of deaths in Barcelona multiplies the 2024 crude death rate (9.02 per thousand) by the resident population (1,686,208 inhabitants), both from Idescat.
We have analysed real, anonymised data from funeral services, and we only publish aggregated percentages and medians. These are the rules we have followed:
You are free to use any figure or chart from this study in your article, project or website. We only ask that you cite the source with a link to this page (CC BY 4.0 licence).
Text
Source: Funerarias Barcelona, “Statistics on funeral services in Barcelona (2025-2026)”, 2026. https://funerariasbarcelona.com/en/barcelona-funeral-statistics/
APA
Funerarias Barcelona. (2026). Statistics on funeral services in Barcelona (2025-2026). https://funerariasbarcelona.com/en/barcelona-funeral-statistics/
HTML link
<a href="https://funerariasbarcelona.com/en/barcelona-funeral-statistics/">Barcelona funeral statistics (Funerarias Barcelona)</a>
All the aggregated data from the study, ready for your spreadsheet.
An image with the key figures to share on social media.
Each chart has its own buttons to download it or embed it on your website, with the source included.
If you are writing about funeral services in Barcelona and need a specific figure, a further breakdown or a comment for your article, write to us and we will reply as soon as possible.
Quick answers to the most common questions, based on the data in this study.
According to our 2025-2026 study, a direct cremation without a wake cost a median of €2,395, and a cremation with a wake cost €3,672.
According to Cementiris de Barcelona, the company that runs the city's municipal cemeteries, 58.15% of its services in 2024 were cremations (8,054 of 13,851). In our study, the cremation rate was 88%.
A wake added a median of €1,277 to the cost of a cremation (53% more), from €2,395 to €3,672.
According to our study, families requested the full death certificate (“certificado literal”) a median of 10 days after the death, and half did so between 5 and 24 days afterwards.
In our study, a son or daughter arranged the funeral in 55% of cases, with daughters doing so more often than sons (33% compared with 22%).
Yes. In our study, 1 in 5 families contacted the funeral home before the death to arrange everything in advance, and most of them were planning a direct cremation.
Yes. They are published under a CC BY 4.0 licence, so you can reuse them freely as long as you cite the source with a link to this page.
Funerarias Barcelona's own data (6 January 2025 - 8 October 2026) and the following official sources, consulted on 21 October 2026:
Last updated: 21 October 2026. Next review planned: October 2027.
