Cemeteries and Crematories (U.S.) — Industry-Level Primer

NAICS 2022 code 81222. NAICS is the North American Industry Classification System, the U.S. government's standard for grouping businesses. This is a NAICS industry (the five-digit level), one step up from the six-digit national industry beneath it. It covers businesses that operate sites for the interment of human or animal remains and/or that cremate the dead: cemeteries, memorial parks and gardens, mausoleums, cremation-only providers (crematories), and pet cemeteries.

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1. Overview

NAICS 81222 is a single-child pass-through: at the five-digit level it contains exactly one six-digit national industry (812220, Cemeteries and Crematories) and nothing else. The two codes describe the same set of businesses; the five-digit "industry" and its lone six-digit "national industry" are effectively identical. Everything of substance lives in the child.

The one-line takeaway carried up from the child: death care is one of the most stable, recession-resistant demand streams in the economy (about 3.07 million U.S. deaths in 2024),[1] but a slow-growing one, sold heavily on a prepaid ("preneed") basis, built on a fragmented base of thousands of small operators, and in the middle of a long-running consolidation and cremation-mix story.

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2. What's inside — and why this level equals its one child

The child industries (there is only one):

Because 81222 has a single national industry beneath it, there is no aggregation to do: no sibling industries to blend, no mix to weigh. The scope, economics, and companies of 81222 are exactly those of 812220: cemeteries and cemetery associations, memorial parks and gardens, mausoleum operation, sale of burial plots and interment rights, standalone crematories, and pet cemeteries.[2]

What sits outside this level is the same as for the child: funeral homes and funeral services (NAICS 812210) are a separate, larger industry; the physical goods sold at cemeteries (caskets, vaults, monuments) are made in manufacturing codes; and preneed funeral insurance falls under insurance-carrier codes.[2] Many operators own both a funeral home and a cemetery, but the two are counted under different codes.

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3. Size (this level's federal figures)

Our ground-truth federal statistics for NAICS 81222: identical to the child, since they are the same businesses:

(SBA is the U.S. Small Business Administration; a business under the size standard qualifies as "small" for federal programs.)

Undercount caveat: read the figure correctly. The $5.57 billion counts only the commercial, for-profit cemetery-and-crematory slice, and even that is an employer-business figure (County Business Patterns covers establishments with paid employees, so it undercounts nonemployer and very small operators).[7] It leaves out most of the country's actual cemeteries: government sites (city, county, cemetery districts, and the federal Department of Veterans Affairs / Arlington systems), and religious, tribal, and nonprofit cemeteries (church, diocesan, fraternal, association-run).[3] It also excludes crematories operated inside funeral homes, which are counted under funeral services (812210). Treat this as an employer-business floor, not a full count of cemetery activity. For context, private research firms put the broader U.S. death-care market (funeral homes plus cemeteries plus products) at roughly $20–25 billion in annual services revenue: a non-federal estimate that varies widely by definition.[8]

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4. Investable universe (where the value sits)

Because this level is a single child, value concentrates exactly where the child primer describes. In brief:

• Public pure-plays are scarce. Essentially one large-cap operator, Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI) (the largest funeral and cemetery operator in North America) and one small-cap operator, Carriage Services (NYSE: CSV). Matthews International (NASDAQ: MATW) offers product-side exposure (memorials and cremation equipment), not cemetery operation. There is no dedicated death-care ETF.[9][10][12][14]
• Most of the industry is private: private-equity-backed roll-ups (Everstory Partners, Foundation Partners Group, NorthStar Memorial Group, and the now-private Park Lawn), thousands of independent family operators, plus a large non-commercial layer of municipal, religious, tribal, and veterans' cemeteries that never appears in a stock screen.[15][19][20][21]

See the 812220 primer, Section 4, for the full operator table and scale figures.

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5. How the money works

Same model as the child. Cemeteries sell interment rights (land-like, develop-once-sell-many-times inventory), merchandise (vaults, markers, urns), and services (the "opening and closing" interment fee). Two features define the economics: preneed: selling and prepaying years before death, which builds a locked-in backlog and a large pool of trust money on which operators earn investment "float"; and perpetual (endowment) care trusts: a state-mandated share of each sale set aside permanently, with only the investment income spent on grounds upkeep.[22] Crematories are capital-light and utilization-driven, but earn far less revenue per case than a traditional burial: the central tension of the industry. Full detail in the child primer, Section 5.

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6. Demand drivers

Unchanged from the child. The fundamental unit is mortality (~3.07 million U.S. deaths in 2024, rising as the population ages),[1] lifted by a multi-decade baby-boom demographic tailwind into roughly the 2040s.[23] The single biggest force reshaping the mix is the shift from burial to cremation: the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) projects a 63.4% cremation rate in 2025, rising toward ~82% by 2045, which lowers revenue per case but opens new products (niches, columbaria, urns, cremation equipment).[24][20] Alternative dispositions (green burial, aquamation, human composting) grow at the margin.[21]

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7. Regulation

Same split as the child. The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Funeral Rule governs funeral providers selling both goods and services and generally does not apply to a standalone cemetery selling only plots, interment, and monuments, so most cemetery activity is regulated at the state level: cemetery and crematory licensing, plot-sale contract rules, and (most importantly) endowment/perpetual-care and preneed trust-funding requirements that vary widely by state.[22][18] Crematories also face state licensing, chain-of-custody, and environmental (air-emissions) permitting. Full detail in child Section 7.

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8. Consolidation

Same dynamic as the child, and the numbers are this level's own. The base is fragmented (3,656 firms across 5,049 establishments) with a moderately concentrated top:

(CR8 = combined revenue share of the eight largest firms; HHI is the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, a concentration measure. Both CR4 and HHI are suppressed by the Census Bureau and we do not state them.)[4] Roughly 40% of commercial receipts flow to the eight biggest firms, while nearly half the industry sits outside the top 50: a classic roll-up setup. Consolidators (SCI, Carriage, Everstory, and PE-backed platforms) buy independents for scale in purchasing, preneed selling, and trust management, protected by unusually durable local moats (irreplaceable well-located land, local heritage, and a pre-committed preneed backlog). Antitrust bites locally: the FTC required divestitures of 53 funeral facilities and 38 cemeteries in the 2014 SCI/Stewart deal.[24] See child Section 8.

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9. Risks

Same risks as the child: the cremation mix shift and alternative dispositions that lower revenue per case; trust and investment risk (endowment and preneed trusts exposed to markets and rates while obligations stay fixed); regulatory and reputational pressure on a sector widely seen as opaque and expensive; short-term mortality volatility; a one-time demographic plateau beyond roughly the 2040s; labor shortages among licensed staff; environmental and land liabilities; and consolidation execution risk. Full discussion in child Section 9.

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10. How to invest, and outlook

Public: SCI is the large-cap, liquid proxy for the whole sector (dividend plus buybacks); CSV is a higher-beta small-cap bet on consolidation and preneed; MATW gives indirect, product-side exposure diluted by unrelated businesses. Two former public names (Park Lawn and StoneMor) have gone private, thinning the listed universe.[11][19] Private: direct ownership of a cemetery/funeral business (often SBA-financeable given the $25 million size standard),[6] or exposure through the PE roll-up platforms.

Outlook (forward-looking judgment). The demographic tailwind underpins volume and makes this one of the more defensive, recession-resistant places to be invested; the relentless drift to cremation caps revenue per case, so operator growth depends on preneed backlog, a shift toward cremation memorialization, and M&A. Net: a low-to-mid single-digit organic grower augmented by acquisitions, with unusually stable cash flows and durable local moats: attractive for income and defensiveness, not rapid growth.

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Sources

Drawn from the child primer (812220); numbering matches that primer.

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics (CDC/NCHS), "Mortality in the United States, 2024" (NCHS Data Brief; National Vital Statistics System), 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db548.htm
2. U.S. Census Bureau, "2022 NAICS Definition — 812220 Cemeteries and Crematories" (scope and cross-references), 2022. https://www.census.gov/naics/
3. California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, "Who We Are and What We Do" (religious, government, military, and tribal cemeteries fall outside private-cemetery licensing), 2026. https://www.cfb.ca.gov/about_us/who.shtml
4. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Concentration of Largest Firms (receipts, firm count, CR8/CR20/CR50; CR4 and HHI suppressed), NAICS 812220, 2022. https://data.census.gov/table/ECNSIZE2022.EC2200SIZECONCEN
5. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 (establishments, employment, annual and first-quarter payroll), NAICS 812220, 2025. https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/2023/econ/cbp/2023-cbp.html
6. U.S. Small Business Administration, "Table of Size Standards," NAICS 812220 ($25 million), 2023. https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards
7. U.S. Census Bureau, "County Business Patterns Methodology" (employer-establishment coverage; nonemployer undercount), 2026. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/technical-documentation/methodology.html
8. Grand View Research / Statista, "U.S. Funeral Homes / Death Care Services Market" estimates (third-party market research; figures vary by definition), 2025. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-funeral-homes-market-report
9. Service Corporation International, "Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2025," 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/89089/000162828026007695/sci-20251231.htm
10. Service Corporation International, "Fourth Quarter 2024 Financial Results and 2025 Guidance," 2025. https://investors.sci-corp.com/2025-02-12-SERVICE-CORPORATION-INTERNATIONAL-ANNOUNCES-FOURTH-QUARTER-2024-FINANCIAL-RESULTS-AND-PROVIDES-2025-GUIDANCE
11. Service Corporation International, "Fourth Quarter 2025 Financial Results and 2026 Guidance," 2026. https://news.sci-corp.com/2026-02-11-SERVICE-CORPORATION-INTERNATIONAL-ANNOUNCES-FOURTH-QUARTER-2025-FINANCIAL-RESULTS-AND-PROVIDES-2026-GUIDANCE
12. Carriage Services, "Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2025," 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1016281/000101628126000021/csv-20251231.htm
13. Matthews International Corporation, "Memorialization" segment overview, 2025. https://www.matw.com/businesses/memorialization
14. Everstory Partners, "StoneMor Inc. Changes Name to Everstory Partners," 2023. https://www.everstorypartners.com/everstory-name-change-from-stonemor
15. Memorials.com, "Largest Funeral Home Companies in the U.S." (Park Lawn taken private in 2024), 2026. https://www.memorials.com/info/funeral-planning-guide/largest-funeral-home-companies
16. Foundation Partners Group, "Foundation Partners Group Launches Next Chapter" (250+ locations across 21 states), 2025. https://foundationpartners.com/fpgnews/foundation-partners-group-launches-next-chapter-with-new-investment-new-ownership-and-bold-plan-for-growth/
17. NorthStar Memorial Group, "Locations" (85+ locations across 12 states; privately held), 2026. https://www.nsmg.com/locations/
18. MKSH (Markowitz, Fenelon & Bank), "How Important Are Perpetual Care Funds for Cemeteries?", 2023. https://mksh.com/how-important-are-perpetual-care-funds-for-cemeteries/
19. U.S. Census Bureau, "Demographic Turning Points for the United States: Population Projections to 2060," 2020. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p25-1144.html
20. National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), "2025 Cremation & Burial Report," 2025. https://nfda.org/news/media-center/nfda-news-releases/id/9786/nfda-releases-2025-cremation-burial-report-comprehensive-insights-to-guide-the-future-of-funeral-service
21. Cremation Association of North America (CANA), Annual Statistics Report / analysis, 2024–2025. https://www.cremationassociation.org/
22. US Funerals Online, "Human Composting as a New Death Care Alternative," 2026. https://us-funerals.com/human-composting-as-a-new-death-care-alternative-a-guide-to-nor/
23. Federal Trade Commission, "Complying with the Funeral Rule" and Funeral Rule review materials, 2020–2025. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/complying-funeral-rule
24. Federal Trade Commission, "Service Corporation International / Stewart Enterprises, Inc." (2014 consent order; divestiture of 53 funeral-service facilities and 38 cemeteries), 2014. https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/service-corporation-international-stewart-enterprises-inc-matter-timeline-item-2014-05-12