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Well good gourd, it’s Fall y’all. In 2023, Finder estimates that 154 million Americans (roughly 46% of the population) plan to have a gourd ole’ time buying a pumpkin to make homemade jack-o-lanterns, which is up from the 44% (then 146 million people) in 2022 who said they’d be making jack-o-lanterns.
The cost of a pumpkin is up, with prices higher than the last several years. In 2023, the cost of the average pumpkin is projected to hit be around $5.47 come halloween. Even with slightly more Americans planning to carve out some time in their schedules for Jack-o-lanterns this year, the increased cost of a pumpkin means that Americans are projected to be spend approximately $843.6 million on pumpkins in 2023. This is an increase of about $92 million (12%) from the $751 million just a year ago.
Here’s how the total adds up:
Time to get spooky
Overall, Halloween 2023 is expected to be a more expensive day with the National Retail Federation. Americans are forecast to spend $12.2 billion on All Saints’ Day in 2023, which is up from the record-breaking $10.6 billion they spent in 2022.
As inflation puts a squeeze on most Americans’ budgets, it makes the holidays even more challenging than usual. To afford extra food, decorations, and party clothes, there are easy ways to save money and make the most of your everyday purchases. One is spending and earning cash back on credit cards that offer the biggest rewards. Another tip is buying like-new items on online thrift shops for a fraction of retail prices, according to Finder’s Money Expert, Laura Adams, MBA.
The National Retail Federation also tacks popular costumes, with dressing like a witch the most popular choice for adults in 2023, Spiderman for kids and a pumpkin for pets — all three of which being the most popular choice in each category since 2017.
The average price of a pumpkin during the fall 2023 season was calculated using the historical average advertised retail price per pumpkin recorded each week from 2016–2022 and the weekly advertised retail price per pumpkin reported so far in 2022. From 2016-2022, pumpkins were sold for an average of 9 weeks according to the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service. We calculated the percentage difference between the average price by each week of sales and the overall average price each year to forecast the price of a pumpkin for this year. Average prices were weighted by the number of stores.
The total amount spent on carving pumpkins this Halloween was calculated using the current U.S. population, the percentage of Americans expected to carve pumpkins this Halloween, and the projected average price of a pumpkin during the fall 2021 pumpkin season.
Note on 2021 prices: Our initial projected estimate of $4.84 for the cost of a pumpkin in fall 2020 was off by $0.0. USDA data shows that the actual average weighted cost during 2020 was $4.06 when weighted by the average price and the number of stores from 8/28/2020 to 10/30/2020.
Richard Laycock is Finder’s NYC-based senior content marketing manager & insights editor, spending the last decade data diving, writing and editing articles about all things personal finance. His musings can be found across the web including on NASDAQ, MoneyMag, Yahoo Finance and Travel Weekly. Richard studied Media at Macquarie University, including a semester abroad at The Missouri School of Journalism (MIZZOU).
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