Stone memorials provide foc us for WWI centenary

摘要

The longevity of the post-World War Ⅱ baby boomers may have reached a peak. The number of deaths is on the rise again (see the graph below). Nobody wants to be too pleased about that but it does have a direct and beneficial impact on the death care industry, including memorial masonry. The death rate was on a downward trend throughout the 1990s and, until now, also in the new millennium. In 2011 it reached its lowest level since records began in 1838. Between 1994 and the low in 2011 the death rate fell by 24%. Now the trend looks to have reversed, both in terms of the number of deaths and the rate of deaths. In 2012 there was an increase and it will have increased again in 2013 (the final figures were not released until the end of May, after we had gone to press, and the figure on the graph is only an estimate, but it was clear there would be another increase for the year - and that starts to look like a trend).