D. Tighe
Research expert covering consumer behavior, sporting goods retail, and the global toy industry.
Halloween in the U.S. - Statistics & Facts
Halloween, also known as All Hallowe’en or All Hallows’ Eve, is a holiday celebration that takes place on October 31 each year. And while Halloween has dark origins spanning hundreds of years, it has evolved into more of a commercial tradition, in which people dress up, carve out pumpkins, and children haunt their neighbors in the hopes of acquiring confectionery.
This is especially true in the United States, where annual Halloween expenditure is set to reach an all-time high of more than 12 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. It was also found that many American consumers planned to begin shopping for the event quite early on. For costumes, for instance, about a quarter of surveyed shoppers planned to acquire theirs between two and three weeks in advance. Less than 10 percent of shoppers said they would start shopping one to three days in advance. Whether it be for adults, children, or their pet(s), costumes are the items that consumers spend the most money on, with projected Halloween costume expenditure amounting to a total of over four billion U.S. dollars in 2023.
This is especially true in the United States, where annual Halloween expenditure is set to reach an all-time high of more than 12 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. It was also found that many American consumers planned to begin shopping for the event quite early on. For costumes, for instance, about a quarter of surveyed shoppers planned to acquire theirs between two and three weeks in advance. Less than 10 percent of shoppers said they would start shopping one to three days in advance. Whether it be for adults, children, or their pet(s), costumes are the items that consumers spend the most money on, with projected Halloween costume expenditure amounting to a total of over four billion U.S. dollars in 2023.
Insidious traditions
In 2023, more than 70 percent of consumers in the United States said they intended to celebrate Halloween. Some of the most common ways to honor the holiday in the United States included decorating one’s home, carving out pumpkins, and wearing scary costumes. The most common tradition, however, involved candy. Close to 70 percent of Americans planned to hand out sweets and treats on that fateful evening in October 2022.Spend of the living dead
Although Halloween is a major seasonal event celebrated each and every year, it is far from the most costly consumer spending event. In terms of average per capita spend, events such as the back-to-class period and the winter holiday season are more likely to haunt shoppers in the United States. When asked how much they would spend for Halloween in 2023, approximately a third of Generation Z consumers believed they would pay anywhere between one and 100 U.S. dollars. On the other hand, a higher share of millennials anticipated that they would be spending over 100 U.S. dollars.
