Boo! 9 surprising facts about Halloween in Canada
How much candy do Canadians buy every October? And how many trick-or-treaters are there, anyway? Here's your answer to those and 7 other Halloween questions this October 31.
It's Halloween on Wednesday, and while the remnants of hurricane Sandy are threatening to make it a cold, wet and windy evening across much of the eastern part of the country, the annual candy and fright-festival is doubtless going to be as popular as ever.
To mark the occasion, the numbers-obsessed folks at Statistics Canada have compiled a list of some surprising Halloween-related numbers:
- 3,734,401 — Number of trick-or-treating aged kids in Canada, which the agency defines as those between five and 14 years old.
- 13.3 million — the number of Canadian households across Canada that could potentially be mined for candy.
- $21.6 million — the total value of all costumes manufactured in Canada last year.
- 88,400 tonnes — the amount of pumpkins grown in Canada last year.
- 100 — the number of businesses across Canada in the costume-renting business.
- $355.9 million — the amount of candy sold across Canada last October.
- $276.2 million — the average amount of candy sold across Canada in other months.
- 850 — the number of Canadians who reported that they were Satanists in 2001, up from 340 in 1991.
- 9,575 — the number of Canadians who reported their religion as "Wicca" in 2001.