Neighborhood data analysts log almost 1K trick-or-treaters by costume colors and choices
After a whirlwind first year at Central and Grand in 2022, Halloween 2023 saw us well prepared for an evening of data collection and candy distribution. We had a large team of seven Halloween data analysts in lab coats parked out front of the house, and started the evening with enough candy to handle whatever the evening threw at us—plus extra from our generous neighbors—which ended up being a whopping 929 trick-or-treaters.
We upgraded our data tracking system from hash marks on clipboards to attendance clickers, pausing every 30 minutes to note the current standings. This was significantly easier to manage while logging the largest waves of trick-or-treaters, and while we have always room to refine our methodology in the service of accuracy, we’re improving every year.
Our first blood was a wee black cat at 5:07 p.m., even earlier than last year! We collected Halloween data until 9:07 p.m., at which point we shifted to handing out candy to night owls (and repeat customers who weren’t as sneaky as they thought they were) and getting ourselves inside to unwind and process the data before bed. We once again smashed our previous all-night records, and were it not for a commitment to a reasonable bedtime and warm environs, I suspect we would have broken 1,000 candy seekers.
Color data remained relatively stable from years past, with black continuing to dominate the community couture. Modern costumes (post-1900s) continued to beat out retro getup (pre-1900s, including Star Wars due to its “long, long time ago” setting) at about a 2:1 ratio.
This year, we had the pleasure of partnering with the Alameda Post to introduce a new category. Their editorial team was curious about whether we’d see a rise in political costumes, given that we’re about to enter into an election year. Based on discussions with them and our team of data scientists, we determined that political costumes include any and all agents of the State, ranging from royalty (princesses) to first responders (law enforcement, Paw Patrol, SWAT, fire fighters) to armed forces (Army, Navy). Much to our surprise, we saw zero political figures this year, whereas we had seen at least one RBG and 45 others in previous years.
We saw a number of Nightmare Before Christmas characters (primarily Sallys), half a year’s worth of Wednesdays, and a couple Coralines. It remains clear that Alameda is where goths go to retire and have kids.
Despite the movie coming out in 2020, we saw a noticeable rise in Sonic the Hedgehog lookalikes, as well as the anticipated bump in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters with their 2023 flick. The biggest shift we saw was a massive drop in science fiction costumes such as Iron Man—the youth of Alameda appear to be unimpressed with Marvel’s Phase 5, and the rise of Spiderverse costumes was not enough to compensate, allowing fantasy costumes to dominate.
In defiance of the associated mobility challenges, inflatable costumes remain popular. In addition to a dozen dinosaurs, we saw a large number of the inflatable costumes showing a kid being held by an extraterrestrial. One of our data analysts commented to one such trick-or-treater, “There’s a lot of kids being abducted tonight!” And let me tell you, the side-eye and shade from an adjacent group of tweens at that particular comment was the kind of delightful shaming that this age cohort makes famous.
Our team can only assume that the Super Bowl babies of 2015 are old enough to pound the ground for candy because among our Halloween data we saw a stunning four Left Sharks. It is possible we only saw three, as two of the sharks came as a pair, and one may have in fact been Right Shark. Baby Shark had a strong showing, and our data analysts would like to issue a formal apology for responding to each Baby Shark by singing “Baby Shark.” We pride ourselves on creating a safe space for trick-or-treaters and their families, and now understand our response resulted in parents and caregivers hearing their children sing “Baby Shark” for extended periods of time. This isn’t aligned with who we want to be as scientists, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo.
Here’s to another Happy Halloween!
MacKenzie Stuart is a Halloween Scientist based in Alameda.
