St. Petersburg, Fla. Is the nation’s worst big city to celebrate Halloween in, according to a study by personal finance site WalletHub.
Despite a top 10 weather ranking, St. Petersburg has one of the lowest number of costume stores per capita in the country, and it comes in next-to-last in the report’s “safety & surroundings” category, which collates measurables such as walk score, crime rate, and pedestrian fatality rate, based on a variety of sources.
The city whose residents have the best time during Halloween is New York, which WalletHub ranked highly for its promising weather outlook, while offering a good score on walkability and general safety.
WalletHub also pointed to forecasts from the National Retail Federation’s annual Halloween Consumer Spending Survey, which is predicting a drop in consumer spending. Overall, the average person is expected to shell out around $74.34 for costumes, candy, and decorations, which is down from $77.52 last year.
The NRF expects total Halloween spending to reach $6.9 billion this year, which would be around $500 million less than 2014.