Highlights. Total American spending for Halloween 2023 is projected at $12.2 billion; candy spending alone accounts for $3.6 billion.
- The average American has a $108.24 budget for Halloween 2023 supplies, such as costumes and candy.
- The average household Halloween candy budget for 2023 is $31.93.
- Over 169 million Americans made a Halloween candy budget for 2023.
- Spiderman is the most popular costume among American children, with 2.6 million wearing this costume for Halloween 2023.
- In 2021, consumers purchased 21.6 million pounds of their favorite* Halloween candies.
*Most-purchased by pounds.
Halloween Shopping for 2023 Statistics
Americans planned to celebrate Halloween 2023 in record numbers (73% of consumers).
- 68% of 2023 consumers do their Halloween shopping in-store while 31% shop online and pick up in-store.
- 65% of consumers buy online and have items shipped to their homes.
- 61% of 2023 Halloween consumers do at least some of their costume shopping on Amazon.
- 39% of consumers shop for Halloween costumes at a big box store, such as Walmart.
- 38% of consumers consider Halloween shopping to be an important household expense.
- 22% of consumers say it’s never too early for retailers to display and sell Halloween items, both online and in-store.
- 65% of consumers will spend less than $100 on costumes for Halloween 2023, including 16% who plan to spend zero dollars.
Halloween Spending Statistics
When parties and events are included, the average American will spend less than $250 on Halloween 2023.
- Total nationwide retail spending for Halloween 2022 increased by an estimated $500 million or 4.95% year-over-year (YoY).
- 20.0% of YoY growth in nationwide Halloween spending is due to increased total spending on candy; 60.0% is due to increased total spending on costumes.
- The average household Halloween budget declined $2.29 or 2.23% YoY.
- While total Halloween retail spending declined 9.09% from 2019 (pre-pandemic) to 2020, the average household Halloween budget grew 6.78%.
- From 2020 to 2021, total Halloween spending increased 26.3% while household budgets grew 11.5%.
Halloween Candy Spending Statistics
At one time, candy expenses consumed the largest portion of Halloween budgets; since 2018, candy has been the third-largest Halloween budget portion.
- Americans spent a total of $3.1 billion on Halloween candy in 2022.
- American households each budgeted $0.89 less on Halloween candy than they did in 2021, a 2.93% decline YoY.
- Projections indicated total sales of chocolate and candy would exceed 2021 sales by between 3% and 5%.
- Candy is the most popular Halloween purchase; 96% of American households bought candy for Halloween 2022.
- Halloween candy accounted for 7.28% of nationwide candy sales in 2022.
- Americans’ favorite* candies are Reese’s Cups, followed by Skittles, Starburst and Sour Patch Kids.
- Ten (10) U.S. states purchased 3.35 million pounds of Reese’s Cups for Halloween 2021.
- Californians purchased over 1.2 million pounds of Reese’s peanut butter cups for Halloween 2021.
- 29.2% of the average Halloween budget goes toward candy.
*Most-purchased by pounds.
Halloween Costume Spending Statistics
The largest share of the average budget goes toward costume purchases.
- In the U.S., adults spend 42.9% more on their own costumes than they do on children’s costumes**.
- Among adults, witch is the most popular costume; 5.8 million adults (and 1.4 million children) planned on witch costumes for Halloween 2023.
- Americans have budgeted $700 million for pet costumes over the last three seasons (17.1% of total costume expenditures).
- Shoppers spent a total of $3.6 billion on costumes for Halloween 2022, up 9.09% YoY.
- The average consumer had a $33.75 costume budget, up $0.16 YoY.
- Consumers spent a total of $1.7 billion or 47.2% of all costume expenditures on adult costumes.
- $1.2 billion was the projected total expenditure for children’s costumes for Halloween 2022 (33.3% of total costume expenditures).
- Consumers spent $700 million on pet costumes for Halloween 2022 (19.4% of total costume expenditures).
- 62% of Halloween shoppers consider price to be the most important element when shopping for costumes.
- From 2020 to 2021, total costume expenditures increased 27.2%.
- Costume spending in 2021 even surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 totals by 5.06%.
- Costume budgets are the only Halloween-related expenses that increased between 2021 and 2022.
**This figure includes adults without children.
Halloween Decor Spending Statistics
Decorations are the second-most popular Halloween purchase after candy; 3-in-4 households have decorations in their 2023 Halloween budget.
- 71% of Americans have a Halloween decoration budget of $100 or less in 2023, with 22% budgeting zero dollars.
- In 2022, $31.89 of the average Halloween budget was for decorations.
- Americans spent a total of $809.89 million on pumpkins during the 2022 Halloween season, up 13.5% YoY.
- Halloween pumpkin sales in 2022 were 35.5% higher than their 5-year average.
- The cost of pumpkins increased 31.1% from 2017 to 2022 for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.56%.
- 31% of Americans spend as much or more on Halloween decorations as they do on Christmas decor.
Halloween Shopping Statistics
Most consumers begin shopping for Halloween in the first two (2) weeks of October.
- 40% of shoppers source their Halloween supplies from discount stores.
- 39% of consumers report shopping at specialty Halloween and costume stores.
- 32% of consumers shop online in preparation for Halloween.
- 28% shop at grocery stores or supermarkets and 25% shop at department stores for Halloween supplies.
- Craft and fabric stores, home decor, and clothing stores each serve Halloween shoppers at an average rate of 13%.
- Thrift stores and resale shops attract an average of 12% of Halloween shoppers.
- Small and local businesses and home improvement stores each serve 9.0% of Halloween shoppers.
- Drug stores and greeting card/gift stores each serve an average of 8.0% of Halloween shoppers.
- 3.0% of consumers buy Halloween supplies from catalogs.
- 45% of consumers begin shopping for Halloween in September or earlier.
- 16% of Halloween consumers don’t begin shopping until the last two (2) weeks of October.
Halloween Consumer Statistics
Consumer behavior varies across demographics. For example, the average Southern household with children spends more than the average Midwestern household.
- Southerners budget $106.64 for Halloween, outspending celebrants in every other region by at least 2.97%.
- Midwesterners spend $95.60 on Halloween, budgeting at least 4.65% less than every other region.
- In households with children, budgets were $149.69 for Halloween 2021, 45.7% more than the average consumer.
- Consumers in households without children planned to spend $73.57, equivalent to 49.1% of spending among households with children.
- 35- to 44-year-olds budget an average of $149.34 for Halloween, outspending every other age group by at least 14.4%.
- Consumers aged 65+ budget an average of $57.07 for Halloween.
- Celebrants aged 65 years and older are least likely to purchase costumes, underspending every other age group by at least 40.7%.
These data and insights were compiled by the Capital One Shopping team based on publicly available data.
Sources
- National Retail Federation, Retail Holiday and Seasonal Trends: Halloween
- Statista, Halloween in the U.S. – Statistics and Facts
- CandyStore.com, Most Popular Halloween Candy by State
- U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts
- CandyUsa.com
- Power Reviews, Halloween Spending Trends Report
- Google Trends, Halloween
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Surveys