How much is Halloween contributing to our economy?

"Lucrative: Now worth more than £300m a year, Halloween is now Britain's third most lucrative festival after Christmas and Easter." The Daily Mail, October 31, 2012

Today we learnt that in 2011, British Halloween spending topped £300 million for the first time, making it the third most lucrative celebration of the year after Christmas and Easter, according to the Daily Mail.

The claim in the article is not sourced, but a research study carried out by Planet Retail, a retail analyst firm, presents similar figures. 

In 2011 Planet Retail conducted a study on Halloween retail sales and concluded that the country had spent £280 million, a figure that they expected to rise by 25% in 2012. The research estimated that Brits this year will be spending up to £353 million.

To illustrate this rise in Halloween spending in the past decade, Planet Retail helpfully provided the graph below:

So how has Planet Retail arrived at these estimates?

We contacted the firm hoping to find out. Unfortunately they haven't yet given us a clear breakdown, and have only said that their "complex methodology factors in UK retail spend, holiday spend, consumer sentiment, information gained from retailers, and spend across other markets (both retail and Halloween)."

WIthout full access to their data and an insight into their approach, it is impossible for us to know if it is well-grounded. Planet Retail did however tell us that they were not responsible for producing estimates for the sums spent on other festivals throughout the year, so there could well be some comparability issues with the 'league table' that has been produced.

However if these figures are sound, that would mean that British households spend over £13 each on Halloween. By comparison, British families spend an average of £526 on christmas, according to the HSBC 2011 Christmas spending survey.

This is, of course, peanuts in comparison to what is spent in America. $300 million is in fact closer to what Americans spend on pet costumes, according to the National Retail Association. IbisWorld in fact reported that US spend on Halloween night is $8 billion. Given that there are 114 million households in the USA (2010 figures), America spends $70 (roughly £43) per household on Halloween. 

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Flickr image courtesy of ohhector