Trick-or-treaters down to lowest number in 23 years
Canada may see the lowest crop of trick-or-treaters in more than 20 years this Halloween, and it won’t be due to lousy weather or financial uncertainty, according to Statistics Canada, the Vancouver Province reports.
Instead, the government agency said those who give out candy will have plenty of leftovers this year because the number of kids of “prime trick-or-treating age” (five to 14 years old) has decreased to 3.72 million, the lowest since 1988.
Stat Can demographer Julien Berard-Chagnon said the group of B.C. children in that age bracket this year is down 3,000 from last year. At 459,000 kids, it is the lowest number observed since 1991, but Bob Fairweather from West Vancouver said he doubts those stats automatically mean a smaller trick-or-treating crowd.
He has been giving out candy for the last 20 years. While he’s noticed a “fallout of older kids,” the younger crowd is still as big as it ever was.
“We always bank on about 100 [kids] and we usually end up, in the end, rationing what we have left,” he said, adding that weather and the type of neighbourhood he lives in makes a difference. “It’s safe, there’s little traffic, most of the homes are really close to the street so [the kids] don’t have to walk in where it’s dark.”
