Easter in the UK: Spending statistics

We look at how much people are likely to spend on Easter eggs and other treats.

In 2023, Easter falls on Sunday, 10 April, and many households have been piling up Easter eggs for weeks. We’ve projected how much Brits will spend this year on Easter amid a squeeze on finances that could see people digging into their savings to fund the celebration.

Quick overview

  • 3 in 4 Brits (74%) are projected to celebrate Easter in 2023.
  • Brits will spend an estimated £960 million during the Easter period.
  • In 2023, an estimated 6.3 million Brits will take a domestic holiday over the Easter weekend in the UK, down from 7.4 million people in 2022.
  • An estimated 4.2 million trips abroad will be taken from the UK in April 2023, down from 5.6 million in April 2022.
  • Around 80 million Easter eggs are sold in the UK each year.
  • An estimated £457.6 million will be spent on Easter eggs in 2023.

How many people celebrate Easter in the UK?

We estimate that almost 3 in 4 Brits (74%) plan to celebrate Easter this year, a total of 39.4 million people. This is a similar picture to last year, when an estimated 75% of people planned to celebrate Easter.

Easter 2022 2023
People celebrating Easter 76.00% 74.00%
Not celebrating 24.00% 26.00%

How much will people in the UK spend for Easter?

In 2023, Brits will spend an estimated £960 million over Easter, with an average spend per person of £28.61. This is up 7% from £26.85 per person in 2022, meaning that, after accounting for inflation and an overall decrease in sales volume from last year, people are spending around 3% less this year. The highest total expenditure for Easter was £1.1 billion in 2019.

Year Easter expenditure
2018 £892,600,000
2019 £1,089,811,384
2020 £902,299,118
2021 £810,106,347
2022 £900,962,044
2023 (projected) £959,848,923

How many people are planning Easter holidays this year?

In 2023, an estimated 6.3 million Brits will take a domestic holiday over the Easter weekend in the UK, down from 7.4 million people in 2022. This is based on our research into the cost of living crisis, which shows that nearly 1 in 6 (15%) Brits will sacrifice domestic holidays to cope with rising expenses.

Our survey also found that 1 in 4 (25%) of people were planning to respond to the cost of living crisis by sacrificing their foreign holidays. We estimate there will be 4.2 million trips abroad from the UK in April 2023, down from 5.6 million in April 2022.

How many Easter eggs are sold in the UK each year?

Over 80 million Easter eggs are sold in the UK each year. The average price of an Easter egg in 2022 was estimated to be £5.18, and this is projected to increase to £5.72 in 2023 with inflation. Therefore, the UK will spend at least £457.6 million on Easter eggs in 2023!

Year Average savings
2019 £381 million
2022 £415 million
2023 (projected) £457.6 million

How much do we spend on Easter eggs vs chocolate bars?

Our 2019 survey found that £381 million would be spent on Easter eggs that year. This was £154 million more than if consumers had bought the same amount of chocolate in bar form (£227 million).

Each consumer could have saved £4.28 by purchasing chocolate bars in 2019, making Easter eggs 68% more expensive overall than chocolate bars (although it’s not as fun to tuck into a plain chocolate bar during Easter!).

What is the price difference between an Easter egg and a chocolate bar?

We went further down the rabbit hole to discover which chocolate brands have the largest differences between the cost of their Easter eggs and chocolate bars in 2023.

Of all the brands analysed, the worst offender was Lindt. Its Lindor Easter eggs cost £3.02 per 100g, which is over £1 more expensive than the cost of a Lindor bar per 100g (£2.00).

The best deal on the market is the Mars Easter egg, coming in at only £0.14 more per 100g than for Mars bars.

Brand Egg (per 100g) Bar (per 100g)
Galaxy £1.61 £1.00
Kit Kat Chunky £1.30 £0.94
Chocolate Orange £1.30 £0.95
Mars £1.19 £1.05
Lindt (Lindor) £3.02 £2.00
Dairy Milk Wispa £1.64 £1.21
Average £1.68 £1.19

Methodology

  • The costs of Easter eggs and the chocolate equivalent were taken from Tesco.com. The closest equivalent bars to the Easter eggs were selected, either a single bar or a multipack.
  • Finder UK survey – A total of 2,000 people were questioned throughout Great Britain, with representative quotas for gender, age and region, in 2019.
  • Projected statistics are based on previous survey data conducted by Finder UK, accounting for inflation when the figures are monetary.

Sources

  • ONS
  • Visit Britain
  • Tesco.com

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