Last night, an estimated 72 million Americans, most of them ages 5 to 14, hit the pavement for trick-or-treating, including for the first time since 1938 in Des Moines, Iowa, where heavy rains Wednesday pushed back the city's traditional Beggar's Night—a Halloween alternative designed to cut down on "hooliganism."
The age-old tradition of trick-or-treating (see history here) has become increasingly expensive in recent years, with Americans spending close to $12B annually on costumes, decorations, and candy. Each household spent an average of $51 on sweets this year, a jump in costs due to a nearly 50% rise in cocoa prices since February (see chart). Over half of Americans decorated their homes or lawns for the occasion, including roughly 30 million pumpkins and thousands of Home Depot's popular 12-foot skeletons, dubbed Skelly.
New Hampshire takes the crown for the state with the most Halloween spirit in 2024 as it hosts the highest number of haunted houses per capita in the US (for an 8.1 on the jack-o’-lantern scale). See a map of the most popular candy by state here.
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