When you really think about it, October boils down to three essential topics — Halloween movies, Halloween costumes and most importantly, Halloween candies. According to the National Retail Federation, Americans will spend over $12.2 billion for the holiday.
And candy? It’ll account for a cool $3.6 billion of that national budget.
Fun-sized treats are so important that The Candy Store, in partnership with major manufacturers and distributors, published a data-driven list of America’s top-selling candy nationwide and state-by-state.
Although the United States’ collective favorite, Reese’s Cups, didn’t shock me at all, the rankings genuinely surprised me more than once.
Hot TamAles Make the top three
As a country the US has solid candy-taste. Below are the top 10 most popular spooky treats nationwide:
- 1. Reese’s Cups
- 2. M&Ms
- 3. Hot Tamales
- 4. Skittles
- 5. Sour Patch Kids
- 6. Starburst
- 7. Hershey Kisses
- 8. Candy Corn
- 9. Hershey Mini Bars
- 10. Snickers
I enjoy the candy on this list, and if I don’t enjoy it, I at least understand why it made the list. But what I don’t comprehend is the budding romance between America and Hot Tamales.
Hot Tamales, our third-favorite candy, outrank Milky Ways and Butterfingers. Collectively, excuse me?!
Not to heat things up too much, but Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin, I’m calling you out for buying so much of these hot and spicy candies that they rank in your state’s top three.
And a special shout out to Minnesota, New Mexico and North Dakota for buying even more, enough to make it their favorite.
CAlifornia is candyland
The Golden State enjoys M&Ms, Reese’s Cups and Skittles, in that order.
Actually Californians like them to such an extent that they bought more candy than Texans and New Yorkers. If my eyes don’t deceive me, and they don’t, California was the only state to buy over one million pounds of any candy.
As if to show off even more, they did that three times over.
| M&Ms | 1,616,992 pounds |
| Reese’s Cups | 1,204,345 pounds |
| Skittles | 1,006,133 pounds |
Connecticut doesn’t like halloween
According to their candy purchasing statistics, the people living in Connecticut might have something against the holiday.
They only purchased 3,056 pounds of their favorite treat — Almond Joys. I know the state is small, but to give you a comparison Washington, D.C. bought over 25 thousand pounds of M&Ms, 22 thousand pounds of Tootsie Pops and 20 thousand pounds of Blow Pops.
And they’re just a city, one which clearly likes lollipops.
Pennsylvania adores chocolate
Pennsylvanians indulge in an abundance of Hershey’s Mini Bars, M&Ms and Skittles, 248,944, 233,074 and 205,578 pounds of each to be exact.
And as the home of Hershey, are we really surprised by this?
The answer is no, by the way.
172 million americans celebrate halloween each year
Of those who celebrate, 96 percent will buy candy and half will stash some away to enjoy through the remainder of the year.
Personally, I’ll make sure to hang on to some Kit Kats. Seeming as they didn’t make the Top 10, there might be some extra for me to save for finals season.