We here in America eat a lot of candy. We also love any excuse to eat a lot of candy. Easter is one of those excuses with eggs full of jelly beans and chocolate treats. As it turns out, Easter is big business for those in the candy industry.
An infographic from our friends at DegreeSearch.org shows us that our obsession with candy drives big sales for Easter and that number is rising. Last year, we spent a collective $14.7 billion on Easter candy. That breaks down to $131 per household. I think I only spent about $15, but I’m willing to imagine that I have stockpiles of Easter chocolate in my house.
The crazy stats come in with just how much candy we buy as a nation. It’s said that there was 120 million pounds of candy bought last year. Out of the 120 million pounds of candy bought last year, 70 percent of it was chocolate. But what about the other kinds of traditional Easter candy? Well, there was over 16 billion jelly beans made specifically for Easter. Alongside that, there are over 4 million marshmallow peeps made per day.
Unsurprisingly, only one holiday beats out Easter in terms of chocolate consumption. That holiday is of course Halloween which spurs Americans to buy 90 million pounds of chocolate. Easter commands a respectable 71 million pounds of chocolate, while the lowly Valentine’s Day only commands 48 million pounds.
Check out the rest of the infographic while I plot my post-Easter cheap candy buying spree: