SALT LAKE CITY — Norman Bates said it first on the silver screen in 1960 that “we all go a little mad here.” But apparently, Utahns are the maddest, according to a recent study that shows they decorate for Halloween more than any other state in the U.S.
Utah ranked No. 1, according to the analysis. New Hampshire, Vermont, West Virginia and Delaware rounded at the Top 5. Utah’s northern neighbors Wyoming and Idaho are ranked at No. 6 and 10, respectively.
Despite Utah’s top ranking among on this analysis, no individual city in the Beehive State cracked the survey’s Top 30. Denver was the top city in this survey.
Overall, the study said 82% of Americans are decorating for Halloween this year and, based on survey results, 56% are also planning to carve pumpkins. On average, Americans are spending $131 on Halloween decorations and taking an average of four hours to put them up. The amount spent rose from $87 in 2023, the study found.
The data collected annually by a Michigan-based home contractor used Google search analysis and surveys taken from a group of 1,203 individuals in September 2024. The group of respondents identified as 49% women, 49% men and 2% nonbinary, the study said, and ranged between ages 18 to 76 with an average age of 40.
The study discovered that the Halloween decorations Utahns like to use the most are spiders.
The decoration of choice in New Hampshire, the No. 2 state, was a Grim Reaper. For No. 3 state Vermont, it was a scarecrow. Rhode Island was the only state with the top decoration of a werewolf.
The top choice across the nation was pumpkins, which also happens to be the best Halloween decoration for making pies.
The state with the least amount of Halloween decorations in 2024 was Alabama.
Contributing: Matt Brooks
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
