New York·Personal Care and Service Occupations·SOC 39-4031

Best Mortician programs in New York, ranked by enrollment

Perform various tasks to arrange and direct individual funeral services, such as coordinating transportation of body to mortuary, interviewing family or other authorized person to arrange details, selecting pallbearers, aiding with the.

4 schools in New York run programs that feed this job, graduating 132 people a year. The job pays a median of $63,090 in New York across about 1,030 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledMorticianFuneral ArrangerFuneral DirectorFuneral CounselorArrangerEmbalmerUndertakerFuneral Planner
Graduates / yr
132
in New York
Median pay · New York
$63,090
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
1,030
people employed
Schools
4
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
30%
across those schools
Median net price
$21,683
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in New York that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

2 programs in New York that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in New York (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own New York page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 12.0301In New York
111
84.1%
3$45,532$22,244
2
CIP 12.0302In New York
21
15.9%
1$45,532$22,244

Top 4 schools in New York

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 2 of the 4 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service
New York, NY Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs
66Funeral Service and Mortuary Science, General$47,98225%$21,683
2Nassau Community College
Garden City, NY Public · 1 feeder programs
34Funeral Service and Mortuary Science, General$44,69523%
3SUNY College of Technology at Canton
Canton, NY Public · 1 feeder programs
21Funeral Direction/Service38%92%
4Hudson Valley Community College
Troy, NY Public · 1 feeder programs
11Funeral Service and Mortuary Science, General35%

All 4 schools in New York

Every school in New York with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in New York that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral ServiceNew YorkPrivate not-for-profit661
Nassau Community CollegeGarden CityPublic341
SUNY College of Technology at CantonCantonPublic211
Hudson Valley Community CollegeTroyPublic111

What morticians, undertakers, and funeral arrangers earn in New York

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in New York
$63,090
Mean annual
$68,640
Jobs in state
1,030
What the range looks like
10th pct$46,780Median$63,09090th pct$94,990
Versus the national median
+14.7%

U.S. median $55,010. New York pays above the national figure.

Job concentration
0.66×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Metro areas in New York

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
$72,860median
940 jobs
Rochester, NY
$59,950median
70 jobs
Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY
$61,940median
60 jobs
Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY
$60,130median
90 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+3.1%
About as fast as average
Openings per year
3,200
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
800
27,500 → 28,400
Typical entry education
Associate's degree
Plus long-term on-the-job training

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers page.

How to become a Mortician

Job zone 3 of 5 · SVP 6.0 to < 7.0
Typical entry education
Associate's degree
On-the-job training
Long-term on-the-job training

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Top skills

Active ListeningSpeakingReading ComprehensionWritingCritical ThinkingMonitoring

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in New York

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 4 majors mapped to Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers4 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 12.0301Funeral Service and Mortuary Science, General
  • 12.0302Funeral Direction/Service
  • 12.0399Funeral Service and Mortuary Science, Other
  • 30.5301Thanatology

Common questions

Answers for people weighing morticians, undertakers, and funeral arrangers programs in New York.

What degree do you need to become a Mortician?+

Associate's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Funeral Service and Mortuary Science, General, which awarded 111 degrees in New York in 2024-25, 84.1% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Mortician?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 2 programs to this occupation. The largest are Funeral Service and Mortuary Science. Together they graduate about 132 people a year in New York.

How much do morticians, undertakers, and funeral arrangers earn in New York?+

The median is $63,090 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 14.7% above the U.S. median of $55,010. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for morticians, undertakers, and funeral arrangers growing?+

BLS projects a +3.1% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 3,200 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in New York?+

4 institutions in New York reported graduates from at least one of the 2 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do morticians, undertakers, and funeral arrangers work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Mortician, Funeral Arranger, Funeral Director, Funeral Counselor among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 39-4031.

Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers in other statesTexasPennsylvaniaIllinoisNorth CarolinaIndianaAlabamaFloridaGeorgia

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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