HPU Poll: 48% of North Carolinians Say They Will Pass Out Candy This Halloween

HIGH POINT, N.C., Oct. 27, 2025 – A High Point University Poll finds that a little more than half of North Carolina residents (53%) will celebrate Halloween this year, while 40% will not. These findings are higher compared to a 2023 HPU Poll in which 47% of North Carolinians said they would celebrate Halloween that year.

About two-thirds of respondents (65%) say they will spend less than $100 on Halloween, including costumes, decorations, candy to give out, and food and drinks. While 24% said they will spend more than $100 on Halloween, nearly two-thirds of the respondents (64%) say their expenditures will be about the same as last year. Only 16% say they will spend less on Halloween than a year ago, and 12% say they will pay more.

The poll asks respondents which candies they have favorable or unfavorable views on. More than three-quarters say they had a favorable opinion of M&M’s (84%), Hershey Bars (82%), Reese’s Cups (81%), Kit Kats (81%), Snickers (80%) and Twix (75%).

More than half of those North Carolinians surveyed feel favorably towards Butterfingers (71%), Starburst (66%), Skittles (65%), Tootsie Rolls (63%), Gummy Bears (63%), Nerds (56%), Whoppers (55%), Smarties (53%), Sour Patch Kids (53%) and Candy Corn (51%).

Mary Janes, the candy with orange-and-black wrapping and a taste reminiscent of peanut butter, are favored by only 42% of North Carolinians. A majority of respondents have an unfavorable opinion of pumpkin spice (53%).

North Carolina residents were asked to indicate whether they plan to do a variety of things to celebrate Halloween. Almost half said they were going to pass out candy to children trick-or-treating at their house (48%), watch a scary movie (47%), and display Halloween decorations in their home or yard (46%).

Less than 40% of the respondents say they will carve a pumpkin (37%), wear a costume (31%), dress their children in costumes (28%), attend a Halloween party (27%), take children trick-or-treating (27%) and pass out healthy snacks instead of candy to children trick-or-treating at their house (21%).

Out of the 62% of North Carolinians who have a pet, only 17% say they will dress up their pet in celebration of Halloween. However, 22% indicate that they might dress up their pet for Halloween.

 Halloween 2025 – Question Wordings and Responses – North Carolina Residents

(August – September 2025)

Do you celebrate the Halloween holiday?

Yes – 53%

No – 40%

Unsure – 7%

Some people spend a lot of time and money celebrating the Halloween holiday, others do not celebrate much at all. Altogether how much money would you say you will spend this year on Halloween, including things like costumes, decorations, candy to give out, and food and drinks?

Less than $100 – 65%

More than $100 but less than $200 – 19%

$200 or more – 5%

Unsure – 11%

Would you say that is more or less than last year?

More – 12%

About the same – 64%

Less – 16%

Unsure – 8%

Do you have a pet?

Yes – 62%

No – 38%

Will you dress your pet up for Halloween this year? (Only those respondents who said they had pets)

Yes – 17%

Maybe – 22%

No – 60%

Unsure – 1%

Methodology:

HPU Poll 113 was fielded by the High Point University Survey Research Center on Aug. 27 through Sept. 11 as an online survey using a panel of respondents recruited and maintained by Dynata. Dynata sent invitations to its panel of North Carolina respondents and the SRC collected 950 responses (an all-adults sample) on its Qualtrics platform. All respondents were asked two screening questions to identify them as registered voters. A total of 792 respondents identified themselves as registered voters. The SRC did all data analysis. The online sample is from a panel of respondents, and their participation does not adhere to the 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, for the all-adults sample, the SRC provides a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points to account for a traditional 95% confidence interval for the estimates (plus or minus 3.2 percentage points) and a design effect of 1.1 (based on the weighting). The all-adults data is weighted toward population estimates for age, gender, race, education and ethnicity based on U.S. Census numbers for North Carolina. The High Point University Survey Research Center (SRC) produces weights through an iterative procedure within SPSS. 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 surveys can be found at the Survey Research Center website. 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.

Dr. Martin Kifer, chair and professor of political science, serves as the executive director of the HPU Poll for the Survey Research Center.

Dr. J.R. Moller serves as the staff director of the HPU Poll for the Survey Research Center.

Victoria DellaPasqua is a research assistant at the HPU Poll for the Survey Research Center.