Halloween Data
We're Turning Candy Distribution Into Homework
Since 2015, our team of data analysts has been tracking increasing amounts of data about the trick-or-treaters who visit our home on Halloween.
Review our previous publications below, meet our team, and learn about our methodology.
Interested in joining us? Our team of analysts welcome your data!
2023
After a whirlwind first year at a busy Alameda intersection in 2022, Halloween 2023 saw us well-prepared for an evening of data collection and candy distribution. We had a large team of seven data analysts in lab coats parked out front of the house, and started the evening with enough candy to handle whatever the evening threw at us (plus extra from our generous neighbors!), which ended up being a whopping 929 trick-or-treaters.
We upgraded our data tracking system from hash marks on clipboards to attendance clickers, pausing every 30 minutes to note the current standings. This was significantly easier to manage while logging the largest waves of trick-or-treaters, and while we have always room to refine our methodology in the service of accuracy, we're improving every year.
Our first blood was a wee black cat at 5:07pm, even earlier than last year! We collected data until 9:07pm, at which point we shifted to handing out candy to night owls (and repeat customers who weren't as sneaky as they thought they were) and getting ourselves inside to unwind and process the data before bed. We once again smashed our previous all-night records, and were it not for a commitment to a reasonable bedtime and warm environs, MacKenzie suspects we would have broken 1,000 candy seekers.
Color data remained relatively stable from years past, with black continuing to dominate the community couture. Modern costumes (post-1900s) continued to beat out retro ones (pre-1900s, which includes Star Wars due to its "long, long time ago" setting) at about a 2:1 ratio.
This year, we had the pleasure of partnering with the Alameda Post to introduce a new category. Their editorial team was curious about whether we'd see a rise in political costumes given that we're about to enter into an election year. Based on discussions with them and our team of data scientists, we determined that political costumes include any and all agents of the State, ranging from royalty (princesses) to first responders (law enforcement, Paw Patrol, SWAT, fire fighters) to armed forces (Army, Navy). Much to our surprise, we saw zero political figures this year, whereas we had seen at least one RBG and 45 in previous years.
We saw a number of Nightmare Before Christmas characters (primarily Sallys), half a year's worth of Wednesdays, and a couple Coralines. It remains clear that Alameda is where goths go to retire and have kids.
Despite the movie coming out in 2020, we saw a noticeable rise in Sonic the Hedgehogs, as well as the anticipated bump in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters with their 2023 flick. The biggest shift we saw was a massive drop in science fiction costumes such as Iron Man; the youth of Alameda appear to be unimpressed with Marvel's Phase 5, and the rise of Spiderverse costumes was not enough to compensate, allowing fantasy costumes to dominate.
In defiance of the associated mobility challenges, inflatable costumes remain popular. In addition to a dozen dinosaurs, we saw a large number of the inflatable costumes showing a kid being held by an extraterrestrial. One of our data analysts commented to one such trick-or-treater "There's a lot of kids being abducted tonight!" and, let me tell you, the side eye and shade from an adjacent group of tweens at that particular comment was the kind of delightful shaming that this age cohort makes famous.
Our team can only assume that the Super Bowl babies of 2015 are old enough to pound the ground for candy because we saw a stunning four Left Sharks (note that it is possible we only saw three, as two of the sharks came as a pair, and one may have in fact been Right Shark). Baby Shark had a strong showing, and our data analysts would like to issue a formal apology for responding to each Baby Shark by singing "Baby Shark." We pride ourselves on creating a safe space for trick-or-treaters and their families, and now understand our response resulted in parents and caregivers hearing their children sing "Baby Shark" for extended periods of time. This isn't aligned with who we want to be as scientists, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo.
Happy Halloween!
2022
Halloween 2022 marked our triumphant return to data collection after several pandemic-induced years off. Our location changed and, let me tell you, we were NOT prepared for the wildness that is Grand Street on Halloween. This year boasted our largest team of data scientists yet: four clipboard-ready adults and a candy-wrangler. We had first blood at 5:21pm, earlier than we ever saw at our previous location. If this is what Monday looks like in our new neighborhood, we live in fear of the next time Halloween falls on a Saturday.
We smashed our previous all-night records within hours and had to rely on an emergency infusion of candy from our generous neighbors to keep going (thank you!), still withdrawing into the house at 8:41pm while families roamed the neighborhood.
Color data remained relatively stable from years past, with black continuing to dominate the community couture. Most trick-or-treaters were unmasked, but we still saw some COVID protections, some of which were well-integrated into the overall lewk. This year saw a distinct rise in candy bags with a skeletal hand attached at the top, though traditional bags and pumpkin buckets continued to dominate.
We last tracked retro vs. modern costumes in 2018 and percentages there remain stable, though we did see a drop in fantasy costumes as compared to science fiction ones since last looking at those numbers in 2016. Anecdotally, MacKenzie believes this is due to a rise in Spidermen and Spidergwens. One of our data scientists, Laura, owns an inflatable t-rex costume, so we also chose to track dinosaurs roaming the street. There were several. Stay safe out there, that's all we're saying.
Happy Halloween!
Update: Following the posting of this report in the Alameda Peeps Facebook group, the Alameda Post reached out to us to publish our findings!
2019
Halloween 2019 delivered our best showing since we started collecting data in 2015, with first blood at 5:57pm and lights off at 9:05pm.
Our 191 trick-or-treaters trended later this year and, anecdotally speaking, older. We still have not bested our 2015 apex, but MacKenzie has high hopes for 2020 when Halloween will again fall on a Saturday.
Working off a hypothesis from one of our data scientists, we tracked costumes that were part of the Disney empire: Disney, Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel. We were shocked to discover that Disney's dominance was far less pervasive than we assumed. We also tracked costume color and candy receptacles, which we've done several times before.
Happy Halloween, everyone!
2018
MacKenzie was teaching on Halloween this year, so many thanks to the team for collecting data in her absence.
There were 170 logged trick-or-treaters and 178 logged candy receptacles. Our data collectors indicated wild rushes of children that interfered with fully accurate data collection. Hopefully, next year's return to 3+ data collectors will support even better data collection.
Like in 2017, we looked at how the trick-or-treater collected their candy, as well as whether the costume could best be classified as "retro" (operational definition of pre-1900) or "modern" (operational definition of post-1900).
2017
Data from Halloween 2017 are in! We had a disappointingly low number of trick-or-treaters this year, fewer than we had when it was pouring rain in 2016. The usual haunted house on our block wasn't around this year, which is likely partially responsible.
Drac valiantly tracked a number of data points despite MacKenzie's constant micromanagement. We looked at how the trick-or-treater collected their candy, as well as whether the costume could best be classified as "retro" (operational definition of pre-1900) or "modern" (operational definition of post-1900).
In a move that got MacKenzie some side eye, she opted to classify Star Wars costumes as "retro" because it took place "a long, long time ago".
2016
The weather gets in the way! Last year, Jon and MacKenzie hosted 261 trick-or-treaters. This year, it was a paltry 167 due to pouring rain. Here's a breakdown of whether the costumes were best classified as science fiction or fantasy.
The hardest costumes to classify were children dressed as food. MacKenzie thinks a hot dog or cookie the size of a five-year-old is a fantasy, whereas Jon rightly pointed out that it could well be the result of futuristic genetic modification, so we placed those five kids with science fiction.
2015
We disbursed from 5:30pm until 9:45pm, and didn't track the total amount of candy distributed. We had a total of 261 visitors, with black as the dominant color by far. Our per-color breakdown is at left.
We left our home entirely undecorated, relying on the porch light to bring folks our way.