Profits are falling at the UK's only listed funeral business - with the firm blaming the drop on the fall in the number of people who are dying.

Dignity released their third-quarter trading update yesterday and it showed that profits were down eight per cent on the same quarter last year.

Underlying operating profit for the first three quarters of the year was also down, by as much as 30 per cent.

For the 39 weeks to September 27, Dignity's funeral division recording underlying profits of £40.8 million, compared to £53.2million for the same period in 2018.

In a statement released to the Stock Exchange, the firm said: "Operating performance in the third quarter was in line with the Board's expectations, driven by robust funeral market share and average income in line with the Board's expectations.

"Operating performance in the year to date was consistent with the Board's expectations allowing for the significantly lower number of deaths, particularly in the first half of the year."

Dignity are almost certainly the only company who produce a report that includes the number of deaths over set periods.

For the third quarter of 2019, the 132,000 deaths was broadly In-line with last year's total of 131,000, and the second quarter's 141,000 compared to 143,000 last year was also a similar figure.

But it's the figures for the first quarter of the year, where there is a startling difference with 159,000 people dying in 2019 compared to 181,000 a year earlier - a decrease of 12 per cent.

The statement added: "If the number of deaths remained one per cent higher than the previous year in the fourth quarter, then 2019 would witness a total of 577,000 deaths; 3.7 per cent lower than the previous year and the lowest number of deaths since 2014.

"Based on updated data released in October 2019, the Office for National Statistics ('ONS') has increased its forecasted number of deaths from 2020 by approximately 20,000 per year, increasing from approximately 600,000 in 2020 to approximately 740,000 in 2040."