The nation is busy celebrating Halloween today - and the Office for National Statistics has got into the spooky mood by ‘treating’ us to its top five most frightening facts.
1. Sabrina and Salem were both names given to babies in England and Wales in 2015 – honoring the classic 1990s/2000s programme ‘Sabrina the Teenage
Witch.’
80 girls were named Sabrina, while six boys were called Salem.
2. There were 1,276 people with a religion classed as Witchcraft on the 2011 Census – with a further 11,766 people with a religion classed as Wicca and 502 people with a religion classed as Occult. There were also 56,620 Pagans and 4,189 Druids.
3. There were over 9,500 Halloween weddings in England and Wales between 1995 and 2013 – an average of 510 per year.
This is not particularly higher or lower than the days around Halloween – 476 was the average number of weddings on 29 October, 570 on 30 October, 574 on 1 November and 489 on 2 November.
4. An average of 1,803 babies were born on Halloween in England and Wales between 1995 and 2014 – making it the 197th most popular day to be born on.
5. Spooky spending stays steady
You may feel as though Halloween has a much higher profile these days than in the past, and there is evidence from Mintel and Conlumino (retail analysts) that sales of Halloween products have increased substantially.
But data from the ONS retail sales bulletin shows that the percentage of annual retail spending taking place in October has stayed steady since 1986 (at around 8.4 per cent).
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here