Large increase in deaths: Must store dead in garages:

Lars Svanholm is general manager of Trondheim’s largest funeral home, Svanholm & Vigdal Gravferd.

He is the fourth generation of funeral consultant, but none of his predecessors has experienced a rise in line with the one he is experiencing now.

Svanholm estimates that the funeral home handles 30 percent more dead people this year than last year – when the mortality rate in Norway was already unexpectedly high.

– We have not had such an increase since the company started in 1922, says Svanholm to TV 2.

Uses garages

The constantly high demand has had unusual consequences for Svanholm and the agency’s 26 employees.

– For us, it has created enormous challenges with everything from refrigerator capacity to access to ceremony rooms, so there has been some waiting time for survivors, says Svanholm.

At times there has been such a high demand that they have had to use garages and other backup solutions such as cold rooms. This has previously only been common in acute crises.

– We have a crisis preparedness if there are large numbers of deaths in a short time. In plane crashes and other major accidents, it is used, but now we have had to use it also with ordinary deaths, says Svanholm.

I don’t think the peak has been reached

According to Svanholm, survivors risk waiting 15-20 days between death and burial, because churches and other ceremony rooms are busy.

– The grieving process can be characterized by the bereaved having to wait longer than normal. Some people are disappointed when they may have to wait an extra week to have a funeral, but they understand the problem, says Svanholm.

FILL UP: The funeral parlor’s coffin rooms are sometimes filled to the brim, according to Svanholm. Photo: Private

Although there are busy days, he does not think the peak has been reached.

– We are a little nervous about the upcoming flu season, and hope people understand that they may have to wait a little. When they are in the middle of a death, this is not the kind of message they want to receive.

Stands out

Mortality in Norway was unexpectedly high in 2021, determined the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI). Then the mortality rate had been low the year before, due to the pandemic’s infection control measures.

Statistics Norway (SSB) keeps statistics on the number of deaths throughout the year. Senior advisor Anders Sønstebø at Statistics Norway says this year’s figures will top last year’s by a good margin.

– The aging wave is starting to catch up with us, and therefore it is not spectacular that there are slightly more people dying, but there are more people dying than we might have thought and hoped for, says Sønstebø to TV 2.

In the first ten months of the year, ten percent more have died nationwide, compared to last year. It is an increase he has never seen before.

In Trøndelag, the increase is even greater. A full 16 percent more have died there this year than last year.

– It is quite unusual, says Sønstebø, who has no idea why this is so.

FHI analyzes

While an increase in the death toll is easy to determine, more analysis is required to assess whether the overall mortality rate is higher than expected.

– In order to assess whether there has also been an increase in mortality, it is necessary, among other things, to assess the size and composition of the age groups that together make up the population, says day director Hanne Løvdal Gulseth in FHI to TV 2.

She says that FHI is working to look into this in more detail now.

– If the oldest age groups in a population increase in size, more deaths will be a natural consequence without the mortality necessarily increasing, says Gulseth.