A High Point University Poll finds that almost two-thirds (63%) of North Carolinians will celebrate Halloween this year, while 34% will not celebrate. These findings are similar to a 2019 HPU Poll, when 65% of North Carolinians said they would celebrate Halloween. 

A majority (65%) of respondents said they will spend the same amount of money as last year, while 16% will spend more and 17% will spend less. In 2019, 74% said they will spend the same amount of money as last year, while 14% will spend more and 11% will spend less. 

For those who will celebrate, the median for spending is $30, which includes money spent on costumes, decorations, candy and food and drink. 

This year, the HPU Poll asked North Carolina residents to indicate whether they plan to do a variety of things to celebrate Halloween. Majorities said that they will watch a scary movie (53%) and pass out candy to children trick-or-treating at their house (51%). Just about half (48%) said that they will display Halloween decorations in their home or yard. Less than 40% of respondents said that they will carve a pumpkin (37%), dress their children in costumes (32%), wear a costume (31%), take children trick-or-treating (31%), 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 (87%), Reese’s Cups (87%), Snickers (85%), Kit Kat (85%), Hershey bars (85%), and Twix (81%). Still, a majority said that they have a favorable opinion of Butterfinger (71%), Tootsie rolls (69%), Skittles (66%), Smarties (60%), Whoppers (60%), candy corn (56%), Sour Patch Kids (54%), Nerds (53%) and pumpkin spice (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 42% among North Carolinians. 

“According to our recent poll, most North Carolinians will be watching a scary movie this Halloween,” said Brian McDonald, associate director of the HPU Poll and adjunct instructor. “The poll also gave insight to what candies are most favored by North Carolinians, with M&M’s and Reese’s Cups at the top of the list.”

The most recent HPU Poll was fielded by the High Point University Survey Research Center on Oct. 19 through Oct. 27, 2022, as an online survey using a panel of 1009 North Carolina respondents recruited and maintained by Dynata. Dynata sent invitations to its panel of NC respondents and the SRC collected 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 3.2 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 weighted 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 studies can be found at the Survey Research Center website. The 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. See more information here.

You can follow the HPU Poll Twitter here.

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.