A High Point University Poll finds that less than half (47%) of North Carolinians will celebrate Halloween this year, while 42% will not celebrate. These findings are lower compared to a 2022 HPU Poll, when 63% of North Carolinians said they would celebrate Halloween.

A majority (61%) of respondents said they will spend the same amount of money as last year, while 17% will spend more and 18% will spend less. In 2022, 65% said they will spend the same amount of money as the prior year, while 16% will spend more and 17% will spend less.

For those who will celebrate, they said they plan to spend an average of only $20 (median), which includes money spent on costumes, decorations, candy and food and drink.

This year, we asked North Carolina residents to indicate whether they plan to do a variety of things to celebrate Halloween. Just about half said that they will watch a scary movie (48%) and pass out candy to children trick-or-treating at their house (43%). Less than 40 percent of respondents said that they will display Halloween decorations in their home or yard (38%), carve a pumpkin (33%), wear a costume (30%), dress their children in costumes (28%), take children trick-or-treating (27%), attend a Halloween party (27%), dress up a pet in costume (20%) or pass out healthy snacks instead of candy to children trick-or-treating (18%).

The poll also asked respondents to indicate whether they have favorable or unfavorable views of several candies. Over three-quarters said that they have a favorable opinion of M&M’s (84%), Hershey bars (83%), Kit Kat (82%), Reese’s Cups (81%), Snickers (80%), and Twix (79%). Still, a majority said that they have a favorable opinion of Butterfinger (71%), Tootsie rolls (68%), Skittles (66%), Whoppers (61%), Smarties (60%), candy corn (55%), Nerds (54%), pumpkin spice (53%), and Sour Patch Kids (51%). Mary Janes, the candy that is in orange-and-black wrapping and tastes kind of like peanut butter, only had a favorable rating of 47% among North Carolinians.

“Halloween celebration is down from last year, according to our recent poll,” said Brian McDonald, associate director of the HPU Poll and adjunct instructor. “The poll gave insight to what candies are most favored by North Carolinians, with M&M’s and Hershey bars at the top of the list.”

NC residents – Halloween (October 2023)

Do you celebrate the Halloween holiday?

Yes – 47%

No – 42%

Unsure – 11%

Some people spend a lot of time and money celebrating the Halloween holiday, others do not celebrate much at all. Altogether how much money would you say you will spend this year on Halloween, including things like costumes, decorations, candy to give out, and food and drinks?

Median: $20
*Calculated based on n=927 responses.
Would you say that is more or less than last year?

More – 17%
About the same – 61%
Less – 18%
Unsure – 4%

Please indicate whether you plan to do each of the following to celebrate Halloween, or not? [Items presented in a random order]

Please indicate whether you have [a favorable or an unfavorable] view of each of items listed below. [Items presented in a random order] 

HPU Poll 98 was fielded by the High Point University Survey Research Center on Oct. 19 through Oct. 29 as an online survey using a panel of respondents recruited and maintained by Dynata. Dynata sent invitations to its panel of N.C. respondents and the SRC collected 1,000 responses on its Qualtrics platform. The SRC did all data analysis. The online sample is from a panel of respondents, and their participation does not adhere to usual assumptions associated with random selection. Therefore, it is not appropriate to assign a classic margin of sampling error for the results. In this case, the SRC provides a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points to account for a traditional 95% confidence interval for the estimates (plus or minus 3.1 percentage points) and a design effect of 1.1 (based on the weighting). The data is weighed toward population estimates for age, gender, race/ethnicity and education based on U.S. Census numbers for North Carolina. Factors such as question wording and other methodological choices in conducting survey research can introduce additional errors into the findings of opinion polls.

 Further results and methodological details from the most recent survey and past surveys can be found at the Survey Research Center website. Materials online include past press releases as well as memos summarizing the findings (including approval ratings) for each poll since 2010.

The HPU Poll reports methodological details in accordance with the standards set out by AAPOR’s Transparency Initiative, and the HPU Survey Research Center is a Charter Member of the Initiative. 

You can follow the HPU Poll on Twitter.

Dr. Martin Kifer, chair and associate professor of political science, serves as the director of the HPU Poll, and Brian McDonald is the associate director of the HPU Poll.