Halloween Candy Prices in 2026: Candy and Gum Up 7.7 Percent in a Year, and Chocolate Is Not Coming Down Yet
The bowl on the porch cost more to fill this Halloween. Federal data put candy and gum 7.7 percent higher than a year ago — and the cocoa behind this year's chocolate was bought at 2025's high prices.
The scariest number this Halloween was on the receipt. Prices for candy and chewing gum have risen 7.7 percent in the past year and more than 18 percent in two years, according to the latest federal data reported this week — more than double the pace of overall consumer prices — and Dallas–Fort Worth households filling porch bowls for Saturday night paid it like everyone else.
Chocolate is the culprit with the longest shadow. Drought and heavy rains in West Africa, where much of the world's cocoa grows, hurt harvests in recent seasons and pushed cocoa prices up worldwide. Global cocoa production is now rebounding, but that relief is not in this year's bags: the chocolate on shelves this Halloween was made with cocoa purchased in 2025, and analysts describe consumer chocolate prices as sticky — slow to fall even when the commodity does. Supermarket tracking by Circana shows the result in the cart: shoppers are buying less chocolate candy even as the dollars spent on it keep rising.
None of it stopped the holiday. The National Retail Federation estimates consumers will spend $13.5 billion on Halloween this year, a record average of $115 per person and 3 percent more than last year. The adjustment households made was not skipping Halloween — it was shopping it: trading down, watching sales, and counting pieces per bag instead of bags per porch.
