A new study ranking 2022’s best places to celebrate Halloween just dropped courtesy of WalletHub, and the results are resounding: Miami’s gone all in on spooky season. In fact, only New York (#1) and San Francisco (#2) scored better than Miami for trick-or-treating, dressing up and partying for Halloween this year.
This isn’t exactly surprising considering the sheer volume of epic Miami Halloween parties and events that have cropped up—not to mention all the haunted places in Miami and sinister historical sites lurking throughout the city.
To gauge the best places to go for Halloween in 2022, WalletHub compared 100 of the most populated U.S. cities across three key dimensions: Trick-or-treater-friendliness, Halloween fun and Halloween weather. Miami scored a total of 60.55 points out of 100, placing it above major cities like Los Angeles (#4), Boston (#10) and Chicago (#14).
When it came to actually calculating the scores, WalletHub gave the heaviest weight to metrics like share of potential trick-or-treaters, population density, walkability and crime rates. Other big factors were Halloween costume and party supply stores per capita and haunted houses and pumpkin patches per capita. Finally, Miami’s mild Halloween temperatures and forecasted precipitation definitely helped boost its overall score.
Other Florida cities to rank in the top 20 included Orlando (#11), Hialeah (#15) and Tampa (#20). According to WalletHub, Halloween is now the third most popular holiday in the U.S., with total spending on Halloween and related expenses projected to reach $10.6 billion this year.