The figures from Voucherbox.co.uk suggest UK consumers are likely to spend around £157m on their 2015 Halloween costumes, enough to dress 3.4 million families in Halloween outfits, and £136m on Halloween food, sufficient to purchase 27.2 million tubs of sweets from an average high street retailer.

A further £98m will be spent nationwide on decorations, enough to buy 65 million pumpkins, whilst £75 million more will go on Halloween entertainment, the equivalent of 30 million DVDs. The total predicted spend is set to be equivalent to £7.17 for each individual in the UK.

Last year, 50 per cent of Britons stated they would not open the door to trick-or-treaters. Despite this, Halloween spending hit a record high of £442m.

If increases in consumer spending are maintained this year, retailers will be ringing their cash registers to the tune of £466m over the weekend. This equates to a total of £28.68 between a family of four. Putting the spending figures in context British families spend over £800 per year at Christmas, whilst nearly half of UK parents spend up to £500 on their children’s birthdays, whereas British men typically spend around £40 on Valentine’s Day, according to various studie

In the US, spending on Halloween is predicted to be equivalent to $21.61 (£14.09) per American citizen, with consumers expected to spend around $6.89 billion (£4.46 billion) in total.

“The increasing popularity of Halloween in the UK comes as no surprise, but the amount of money invested in this holiday is still slightly staggering,” said Shane Forster of Voucherbox.co.uk.

“An estimated spend equal to £7.17 for each UK citizen is a real eye opener of how much the holiday has become accepted as part of British culture – although 50 per cent of individuals in 2014 wouldn’t open the door to trick-or-treaters, the increase in spending indicates this is likely to lower year-on-year. It will be interesting to see how this holiday is further adopted by the British public, and how spending relating to it develops in the coming years.”

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