You get to dress up in fun costumes and gorge on delicious treats. It’s an evening millions look forward to every year. All that celebration comes with a price tag.
The National Retail Federation expects Americans to spend just about $13.5 billion on Halloween this year, slightly more than last year. Candy alone is estimated to be $4.1 billion of that. On a per-person basis, that equates to about $115.14, and 96 percent of shoppers are planning to buy sweets.
All of that candy is destined for jack-o’-lantern buckets and pillowcases, and some states are just better for trick-or-treaters than others. Spokeo has crunched the numbers using data from the National Retail Federation, the Census, and the National Centers for Environmental Information to rank all 50 states on their trick-or-treat quality, so that you know just how much candy to expect on October 31. It might feel like the luck of the draw whether or not you have a strong haul of candy on Halloween, but there’s a myriad of secret factors at play.
Here’s what to look for: a neighborhood with plenty of children that is densely populated with lots of houses close together. Neighborhoods where homes have lit-up walkways also make knocking on the door easy. These are some of the factors that make a high-quality trick-or-treating place.
Spokeo’s index scores and ranks each state on four main conditions drawn from federal Census and weather data. Each component of the index receives a score on a scale of 0 to 100. Top states in each category score 100.
Each of the four scores is then weighted and combined into one single index for an aggregate score. The four categories are: 1. Households with children under 18.
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