Last modified: Wednesday, February 10, 2010
IU's Indiana Business Research Center offers interesting facts for Valentine's Day 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 10, 2010
EDITORS: Tanya J. Hall, an economic research analyst at the IBRC, is available to discuss the data presented in this release and can be reached at 812-855-5507 or halltj@indiana.edu.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Although the economy impacted Valentine's Day sales in 2009 with similar trends expected for 2010, industries involved in the smitten holiday are still expected to see spending reach $14.7 billion this year. Below are some other interesting facts about Valentine's Day from the Indiana Business Research Center in Indiana University's Kelley School of Business.
- Well over half -- 59.5 percent -- of Midwesterners plan to celebrate Valentine's Day this year. The national average for those 18 and older is 62.8 percent. They will spend an average of $92.75 on Valentine's Day gifts for significant others, spouses, other family members, friends, co-workers, children's classmates/teachers and pets. Nearly 71 percent of this amount -- $65.82 -- will be spent on a significant other or spouse.
- The top five gifts given by men will be flowers (58 percent), an evening out (53.9 percent), card (51.5 percent), candy (40.3 percent) and jewelry (25.7 percent). Women's top expected gifts to men will be a card (56.2 percent), an evening out (46.7 percent), candy (45 percent), flowers (32 percent) and jewelry (13.5 percent). Among Midwesterners overall, top gift is a card (56.2 percent), followed by an evening out (46.7 percent), candy (45 percent), flowers (32 percent) and jewelry (13.5 percent). These gifts might be stand-alone or given in conjunction with something else.
- Roses remain a popular choice for Valentine's Day. An estimated 187 million roses were produced for Valentine's Day in 2009. Nearly half of these roses were red roses (48 percent). In 2006, only 45 of 18,670 commercial greenhouse operations in the United States produced roses due to 90.6 percent of roses being imported.
- There are 493 florists in Indiana who handle Valentine's Day needs. Valentine's Day is the number one holiday for florists.
- Jewelry store retailers sold $2.2 billion in merchandise last February, making it the fourth highest month of sales behind December, November and May. There are 477 jewelry establishments in Indiana that may also purchase from the 12 jewelry manufacturers in the state. These businesses employed a total of 3,654 workers.
- Valentine's Day also is a sweet holiday for retailers. An estimated 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine's Day. Additionally, about 8 billion conversation heart candies were produced in 2009.
- Looking for love also is big business. There were 904 dating services nationwide as of 2002. These services, including Internet dating services, employed nearly 4,300 people and had revenues of $489 million.
- February is the least popular month to get married compared to the summer months (June through August) where roughly 30.9 percent of couples will tie the knot. Only 6.1 percent of marriages take place in February. There were 3,026 marriage licenses granted in Indiana for February 2009. In all of 2008 Indiana granted 50,671 marriage licenses. California had the most at 246,802 licenses.
- Eight percent of couples get engaged in February, setting the stage for a typical engagement period of 16 months.
- The median age for first marriage was 26.9 years for men in Indiana and 25.8 years for Hoosier women in 2008. These ages were slightly lower than the national average of 28 and 26.2 years for men and women.
- Little more than half of Hoosiers are married. According to the American Community Survey, 52 percent of Indiana's population aged 15 or older -- 2.6 million Hoosiers -- were married in 2008. (For more details on marriage in Indiana, see: www.incontext.indiana.edu/2009/nov-dec/article3.asp.).
