The National Retail Federation (NRF) has released its annual Halloween spending survey and found that Americans plan to spend upwards of $8.8 billion in total spending in 2019. The total is the third-highest in the survey’s 15-year history, after the record $9.1 billion set in 2017. A total of 172 million people plan to celebrate Halloween – 68 percent of those surveyed – down from 175 million last year.
According to the survey, this year’s top Halloween purchases will be candy, decorations, and costumes. Consumers plan to spend $3.2 billion on costumes (purchased by 67 percent of Halloween shoppers), $2.6 billion on candy (95 percent), and $2.7 billion on decorations (72 percent).
This year’s down numbers appear to have stemmed from the ongoing trade war with China, with about 14 percent of those surveyed saying their concerns about the economy will impact this year’s Halloween plans.
The survey also explored costume trends for 2019 and found that superheroes and princesses still reign supreme when it comes to kids’ Halloween costumes. 3.1 million children plan to dress up as their favorite princess, 2.4 million as their favorite superhero, 2 million as Spider-Man,1.5 million as an Avengers character other than Spider-Man and 1.4 million as Batman. Check out the top 10 kids’ costumes below:
- Princess – 7.9 percent
- Superhero – 6 percent
- Spider-Man – 5.2 percent
- Avengers character (excluding Spider-Man) – 3.9 percent
- Batman – 3.5 percent
- Witch – 3.3 percent
- Ghost – 2.8 percent
- Vampire – 2.2 percent
- Frozen (Elsa, Anna) – 2.2 percent
- Pirate – 2.1 percent
When it comes to adults, the costumes skew towards the classics with most adults wanting to be witches or vampires. The survey found 5 million adults plan to dress like a witch and 2 million as a vampire. Rounding out the top five costumes, 1.8 million adults plan to dress up as a superhero, 1.5 million as a pirate and 1.4 million as a zombie. The top 10 adults costumes can be seen below:
- Witch – 8.9 percent
- Vampire – 3.6 percent
- Superhero – 3.1 percent
- Pirate – 2.7 percent
- Zombie – 2.5 percent
- Ghost – 2 percent
- Avengers character (excluding Spider-Man) – 2 percent
- Princess – 1.9 percent
- Cat – 1.8 percent
- Spider-Man – 1.7 percent
What’s interesting is that there is very little overlap in the NRF data and the recently released Pinterest data when it comes to trending Halloween costumes. In fact only Spider-Man, superhero, and pirate appear on both lists.
The survey of 7,419 consumers was conducted September 3-10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points. You can view all of the details on this year’s Halloween spending on the NRF website.
