Nearly half of Americans say Halloween brings members of their community together

Washington, D.C., October 16, 2026 – Nearly half of Americans (47%) say Halloween brings members of their community together, while another 49% say Halloween doesn’t play a major role in their community, according to a new Ipsos poll.

This comes as 55% of Americans say they celebrate Halloween, down slightly from 2021 (62%). Common activities Americans partake in during the Halloween season include decorating houses (32%), watching scary movies (29%), carving pumpkins (27%), and dressing up in a costume (26%).

The survey also finds that, by a wide margin, Americans say that chocolate candy (51%) is their favorite Halloween candy, followed by gummy/jelly candy (9%), sour candy (9%), and caramel candy (7%).

Experiences of Halloween vary among parents of children under 18, who are more likely than non-parents to be excited about Halloween (52% vs. 35%, respectively) and say that Halloween is a fun holiday for them and their family (75% vs. 54%). Parents are also are more likely to say they generally dress up in a costume (45% vs. 21%) and go trick-or-treating (56% vs. 12%) during the Halloween season. In addition, parents are slightly more likely to say that Halloween brings members of their community together (53% vs. 46%).

This survey also explores Americans’ experiences with supernatural events, such as UFOs, ghosts, and horoscopes.

About the Study

This Ipsos poll was conducted October 9-11, 2026, by Ipsos using the probability-based KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,020 general population adults aged 18 or older.

The study was conducted in English. The data were weighted to adjust for gender by age, race and ethnicity, census region, metropolitan status, education, household income, 2024 vote choice, and political party identification. Political party identification benchmarks are from the 2026 NPORS annual survey. The demographic benchmarks came from the 2025 March supplement of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS).

• Gender (Male, Female) by Age (18–29, 30–44, 45-59 and 60+)
• Race/Hispanic Ethnicity (White Non-Hispanic, Black Non-Hispanic, Other, Non-Hispanic, Hispanic, 2+ Races, Non-Hispanic)
• Education (Less than High School, High School, Some College, Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree or higher)
• Census Region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West)
• Metropolitan status (Metro, non-Metro)
• Household Income (Under $25,000, $25,000-$49,999, $50,000-$74,999, $75,000-$99,999, $100,000-$149,999, $150,000+)
• 2024 Vote Choice (Trump, Harris, Another candidate, Did not vote)
• Political Party ID (Democrat, Lean Democrat, Republican, Lean Republican, Independent/Something else)

The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults. The margin of sampling error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.05. The margin of sampling error is higher and varies for results based on sub-samples. In our reporting of the findings, percentage points are rounded off to the nearest whole number. As a result, percentages in a given table column may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. In questions that permit multiple responses, columns may total substantially more than 100%, depending on the number of different responses offered by each respondent.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Alec Tyson
Senior Vice President, US
Public Affairs
[email protected]

Mallory Newall
Senior Vice President, US
Public Affairs
[email protected]

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