According to the National Retail Federation, total Halloween spending is expected to reach a record $12.2 billion, exceeding last year’s record of $10.6 billion. A record number of people (73%) will participate in Halloween-related activities this year, up from 69% in 2022.

How many pumpkins do Americans consume? On average, the top pumpkin-producing state of Illinois grows about 40,000 pounds per acre. Illinois produced 652 million pounds in 2021, more than the other five most productive states combined!

In 2021, farmers in the top six pumpkin-producing States harvested more than 1 billion pounds of pumpkins total. That is a LOT of gourds!

What else are consumers spending on?

The top ways consumers are planning to celebrate are handing out candy (68%), decorating their home or yard (53%) or dressing in a costume (50%).

Roughly 32% plan on throwing a party while 28% plan on taking their children trick-or-treating.

Per-person spending is also up as consumers plan to spend a record $108.24 each, up from the previous record of $102.74 in 2021. The greatest increase in spending is projected to be from costumes, which are more popular than ever.

Sixty-nine percent of those celebrating Halloween plan to buy costumes, up from 67% last year and the highest in the survey’s history. Total spending on costumes is expected to reach a record $4.1 billion, up from $3.6 billion in 2022.

But what do kids like to dress up as? About 2.6 million children plan to dress as Spider-man^®, 2 million as their favorite princess, around 1.6 million as a ghost, 1.5 million as a superhero other than Spidey and 1.4 million as a witch.

Whether you’re throwing a costume party or planning on trick-or-treating, we encourage you to budget responsibly and exercise safety this Halloween. For a list of safety tips, follow this link for a page by the The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

If you need to make sure your spooky month spending doesn’t give your wallet a jump-scare, try planning your spending with the Budget tool under the “Spending” tab in Cadence Online Banking.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, Statista, National Retail Federation, USDA Economic Research Service, US Department of Transportation

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