Americans plan to hand out treats this Halloween - CBS News poll

Americans will resume handing out Halloween candy this year, according to a recent CBS News poll. About half of Americans say that someone in their household will be handing out candy or other treats this year on Halloween.

This is nearly twice the percentage that said they would in 2020, when coronavirus cases were surging across the country and before any vaccines were available. The percentage that plan to hand out Halloween treats this year is in line with what was recorded in years before the coronavirus outbreak began.

But candy isn't America's favorite thing about Halloween. When asked what they liked most about the holiday, the top choice was the costumes, followed by the decorations – just 22% picked candy, which was the third option. Another 13% volunteered that they don't like anything about Halloween.

This poll was conducted by telephone October 12-17, 2021 among a random sample of 1,010 adults nationwide.  Data collection was conducted on behalf of CBS News by SSRS of Glen Mills, PA.  Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-line and cell phones.  

The poll employed a random digit dial methodology. For the landline sample, a respondent was randomly selected from all adults in the household. For the cell sample, interviews were conducted with the person who answered the phone. 

 Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish using live interviewers. The data have been weighted to reflect U.S. Census figures on demographic variables. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus 3.6 percentage points. The error for subgroups may be higher and is available by request. The margin of error includes the effects of standard weighting procedures which enlarge sampling error slightly. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.