Halloween in AmericaNo. 9584 · The 2026 edition
Top 10 Trends in Halloween Spending 2014
From record-breaking candy purchases to a surge in pet costumes, discover the spending habits that defined Halloween in 2014.
Our own summary of the original — the full post and photos live at web.archive.org.
Halloween spending in 2014 hit new highs, with total expenditures reaching $7.4 billion. Top trends included increased spending on costumes for pets and adults, a preference for high-quality decorations, and a shift toward online shopping. Candy sales remained strong, with chocolate being the most popular choice.
About this
A Wayback Machine capture of the SlideShare deck "Top 10 Trends in Halloween Spending 2014," published by the National Retail Federation. It ranks ten consumer-spending insights drawn from NRF's 2014 Halloween Consumer Spending Survey, covering costume spending, celebration and participation numbers, shopping timing and shopping channels, and pet costumes. The final slide gives the survey methodology from Prosper Insights & Analytics.
The list
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01
Shoppers will spend $2.8 billion on Halloween costumes in 2014 2014
$1.4 billion on adult costumes and $1.1 billion on children's costumes.
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02
162 million people are expected to celebrate Halloween in 2014 2014
Up from 158 million in 2013; $7.4 billion projected total Halloween spending in 2014.
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03
16% of people will turn to pop culture for costume inspiration 2014
Pop culture is a costume-inspiration source for a share of shoppers.
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04
A quarter of shoppers say they'll head to grocery stores for Halloween purchases 2014
Half of all shoppers plan to buy their Halloween items at discount stores.
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05
1/3 of people start their Halloween shopping before October 2014
Many begin Halloween shopping early in the season.
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06
1 in 5 shoppers say Halloween spending will be impacted by the economy 2014
20% will make rather than buy costumes; 8% will not hand out candy this year.
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07
The average young adult (18-24) will spend $87 on Halloween activities 2014
Versus $78 last year; 78% dress in costume versus 73%; 21% use Pinterest vs 11% of average adults.
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08
23 million people will dress their pets in costumes 2014
Pet costumes remain a notable Halloween category.
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09
33 million people will get into the Halloween spirit by visiting a haunted house 2014
Haunted house attendance is a popular activity.
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10
54 million people will throw or attend Halloween parties 2014
Partygoing and hosting involve a large share of celebrants.
Facts from the original
- The presentation was published by the National Retail Federation on September 24, 2014.
- In 2014, 161 million Americans will celebrate Halloween and more people than ever will buy costumes for themselves, their children and even their pets.
- NRF's 2014 Halloween Consumer Spending Survey was designed to gauge consumer behavior and shopping trends related to Halloween spending.
- The survey was conducted for NRF by Prosper Insights & Analytics.
- The poll of 6,332 consumers was conducted September 2-8, 2014.
- The consumer poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.3 percentage points.
