How Much Money Is Spent on Valentine’s Day Every Year?
As one of the top shopping holidays in the United States in terms of expenditure per person, Valentine’s Day is an event all ecommerce owners should plan to promote for brand awareness and grow sales.
Recent data shows that the average amount spent per person on Valentine's Day in 2024 was $185.81, a 3.6% decrease from the previous year. But how much money is spent on Valentine’s Day every year altogether?
Here’s a look at the overall annual Valentine’s Day spending over the past decade.
How much is spent on Valentine’s Day in the US?
According to the latest statistics on Valentine’s Day spending from the National Retail Federation, US consumers spent a total of $25.8 billion on celebrating the occasion in 2024. This was 0.4% less than the $25.9 billion registered in 2023. It is also the third-highest annual expenditure ever recorded, after the $27.4 billion buyers spent in 2020 and 2023’s total spend.
Analysts say that expenditure on significant others in 2024 hit $14.2 billion—a record high. This also makes up 55% of the overall Valentine’s Day spending, which means that more than half of the total expenses to celebrate the occasion was on partners. In fact, a further breakdown shows that the average household spent $101.84 on their significant other, more than three times the expenditure on other family members (such as children and parents), on which the average person forked out $29.08.
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Over the past decade, the total amount of money spent on Valentine’s Day has mostly increased year after year. In 2014, consumers spent $17.3 billion to mark the occasion. This was a 7% fall from the previous year. Expenditure quickly recovered the following year, rising 9.2%, to $18.9 billion, in 2015. From then on, with the exception of decreases in 2017, 2021, and 2024, overall Valentine’s Day spending grew annually, recording historic highs almost every time.
The increasing amount of money spent on Valentine’s Day comes as the number of people marking the event fluctuates year after year. In 2014, 54% of consumers celebrated Valentine’s Day—a six percentage fall from the previous year. This number stayed relatively steady until 2019, when it fell to 51%—the lowest year on record so far. It rose to 55% in 2020, before falling again to 52% in 2021. In 2024, 53% of consumers celebrated Valentine’s Day.