It's been said that the simplest way to think of a country's GDP is to consider it the size of the country's economy. If that's the case, then the amount Americans spend annually on Halloween is larger than the economies of many small nations. In fact, during 2014, Halloween spending in America exceeded the GDP of 11 different countries—combined.
And 2014 was not an anomally. Annual Halloween spending regularly exceeds the GDP of roughly 30 countries every year. Here's a year-to-year look at how Halloween in America has compared to GDPs of similar size since 2006.
Numbers in $ Billions
Source: worldbank.org
