How much does the average person spend on Halloween?

According to the National Retail Federation's 2025 survey, the average person celebrating Halloween plans to spend $114.45, a record, up from $103.63 in 2024 and $108.24 in 2023. Total U.S. spending was projected at $13.1 billion.

What do Americans spend the most on at Halloween?

Costumes, at $4.3 billion in 2025, just ahead of decorations at $4.2 billion. Candy is third at $3.9 billion despite being the most popular purchase, and greeting cards are fourth at $0.7 billion.

How many Americans celebrate Halloween?

Seventy-three percent of consumers planned to celebrate in 2025, per the NRF survey, in line with 72 percent in 2024 and the highest response since 2005. In 2020, during the pandemic, just 58 percent celebrated.

Are Halloween prices higher because of tariffs?

Seventy-nine percent of 2025 shoppers expected higher prices specifically because of tariffs, per the NRF survey, and 70 percent planned some cost-saving measure. Discount stores were the top destination at 42 percent of shoppers.

Home › Halloween Cost Calculator › How Much Does Halloween Cost?

The Halloween ledger · Table No. 36

How Much Does Halloween Cost?

Americans will spend a record $13.1 billion on Halloween in 2025, $114.45 per person. The category breakdown, the history, and what drives the record.

Filed October 24, 2026 · figures checked against 2026 sources

The short answer

Halloween is now a $13.1 billion holiday in the United States. The National Retail Federation's annual consumer survey, conducted by Prosper Insights and released in September 2025, projects total Halloween spending of $13.1 billion for 2025, up from $11.6 billion in 2024 and above the previous record of $12.2 billion set in 2023. The average person celebrating plans to spend $114.45, a record, up from $103.63 in 2024 and above the previous per-person high of $108.24 in 2023. That is a $10.82 jump in one year, or about 10.4 percent.

Participation is at a modern high alongside the spending. Seventy-three percent of consumers said they planned to celebrate Halloween in 2025, in line with 72 percent in 2024 and the highest response since 2005. For context, the pandemic year of 2020 saw just 58 percent celebrating. Halloween did not merely recover from the pandemic dip; it grew past its old shape, with more people carving pumpkins, throwing parties, visiting haunted houses, and dressing up pets than in 2024.

Where the $13.1 billion goes

The survey breaks the total into four buckets, and the order matters. Costumes lead at $4.3 billion, followed by decorations at $4.2 billion, candy at $3.9 billion, and greeting cards at $0.7 billion. In shares of the total, that is 32.8 percent costumes, 32.1 percent decorations, 29.8 percent candy, and 5.3 percent greeting cards. Candy is the most popular purchase by headcount, but it is third by dollars: everybody buys some candy, while fewer people buy a costume or a yard display, and those cost far more per buyer.

Category	2025 total	Share	Who buys
Costumes	$4.3 billion	32.8%	71% of celebrants
Decorations	$4.2 billion	32.1%	78% of celebrants
Candy	$3.9 billion	29.8%	66% hand out candy
Greeting cards	$0.7 billion	5.3%	38% of celebrants

The buying rates behind those totals are worth noting. Seventy-eight percent of celebrants planned to buy decorations in 2025, up from 75 percent in 2024, and 71 percent planned to buy costumes. Greeting cards, often treated as a dying category, actually grew: 38 percent planned to buy them, up from 33 percent in 2024. The holiday is broadening, not narrowing.

What people actually do

The survey also asks how people celebrate, and the activity list explains where the money lands. Handing out candy leads at 66 percent, followed by dressing in costume at 51 percent and decorating the home or yard at 51 percent. Carving a pumpkin comes in at 46 percent, throwing or attending a party at 32 percent, visiting a haunted house at 24 percent, and dressing up a pet at 23 percent. Every one of those activities except handing out candy got more popular than in 2024, which is part of why the total jumped: the same celebrants are doing more things, and each thing has a price tag.

The pet number deserves a pause. Nearly a quarter of celebrants dressing up a pet sounds like a novelty until you see the spending: pet costumes alone account for $860 million of the $4.3 billion costume total. The pet aisle is a real budget line now, bigger than the entire greeting card category.

The tariff shadow

The 2025 survey was taken under a cloud the survey itself measured: 79 percent of shoppers expected prices to be higher specifically because of tariffs, since much Halloween merchandise is sourced from China and other overseas suppliers. Yet 73 percent still planned to celebrate, and 70 percent said they planned some cost-saving measure. That combination, expecting higher prices and celebrating anyway, is the story of the record total: people did not cancel Halloween, they shopped it harder. Discount stores were the leading purchase destination at 42 percent, followed by specialty Halloween and costume shops at 31 percent and online retailers at 31 percent.

Timing shifted earlier too. Nearly half of shoppers, 49 percent, began buying Halloween items in September or earlier. The early start is a budgeting behavior as much as a shopping one: spreading a $114.45 average across two months stings less than absorbing it in the last week of October, and early buyers catch the full selection before the popular sizes sell out.

The boxed insight

The costume passed the candy. For most of Halloween's commercial history, the candy bowl was the mental model of the holiday's cost, and the costume was an afterthought. The 2025 numbers invert that: costumes at $4.3 billion now outspend candy at $3.9 billion, and decorations at $4.2 billion nearly match costumes. The practical consequence is that the biggest savings lever in Halloween is no longer buying cheaper candy; it is the costume decision. One skipped or thrifted adult costume, at a typical shelf price of $45, saves more than the entire default candy bowl in this site's calculator ($44.97 for 75 visitors). Budget Halloween by starting with the costumes, not the candy, because that is where the money actually is.

The history in one paragraph

Three data points make the trend. In 2023, total spending set a then-record $12.2 billion with a per-person average of $108.24. In 2024, the total fell back to $11.6 billion and the per-person average to $103.63, a down year that looked like normalization. In 2025, both figures blew past the old records: $13.1 billion total, $114.45 per person. The two-year path from $103.63 to $114.45 is a 10.4 percent rise in per-person spending, faster than general inflation over the same stretch, which points to real behavioral change (more activities per celebrant, more expensive categories) rather than pure price inflation.

What the average hides

The $114.45 average is a mean across all celebrants, and means hide the spread. A household that hands out candy and carves one pumpkin might spend $50 all-in. A household with two costumed kids, a decorated yard, and a party can clear $400 without trying. The average is useful as a benchmark, which is why this site's calculator stamps your per-person total against it, but it is not a target. The honest question is not whether you beat $114.45; it is whether each line on your ledger was a choice. The calculator exists to make those lines visible: candy, costumes, decor, pumpkins, party, haunted house, each priced separately, so the total is a sum of decisions rather than a surprise at the checkout.

What to do with this number

Use $114.45 as a planning anchor, not a verdict. If your household has four celebrants, the benchmark total is $457.80; if your ledger lands far above it, the costume or party line is usually the reason, and both are choices you can still change in the last week of October. If your ledger lands far below it, you are not missing out; you are the median experience the survey averages over. Either way, price the night before you shop it. The calculator on this site takes five minutes and replaces a vague dread of the Halloween bill with an itemized list you can edit.

Halloween cost questions

How much does the average person spend on Halloween?: According to the National Retail Federation's 2025 survey, the average person celebrating Halloween plans to spend $114.45, a record, up from $103.63 in 2024 and $108.24 in 2023. Total U.S. spending was projected at $13.1 billion.
What do Americans spend the most on at Halloween?: Costumes, at $4.3 billion in 2025, just ahead of decorations at $4.2 billion. Candy is third at $3.9 billion despite being the most popular purchase, and greeting cards are fourth at $0.7 billion.
How many Americans celebrate Halloween?: Seventy-three percent of consumers planned to celebrate in 2025, per the NRF survey, in line with 72 percent in 2024 and the highest response since 2005. In 2020, during the pandemic, just 58 percent celebrated.
Are Halloween prices higher because of tariffs?: Seventy-nine percent of 2025 shoppers expected higher prices specifically because of tariffs, per the NRF survey, and 70 percent planned some cost-saving measure. Discount stores were the top destination at 42 percent of shoppers.