trouble

Mean Girls was right. This year is all about “Girl World” Halloween. As Cady Heron wisely shares, Halloween is that one special night you can dress as whoever and however you want. Some opt for spooky, while others opt for scandalous, but where across the US are the most risque outfits of them all? 

We took a look across the country to find out which states were opting for more revealing attire and where they were keeping it more PG. Zooming out, we captured the national sentiment of dressing up as something revealing for Halloween as well as the trending ‘fits of the spook season. 

Key Findings:

• America’s most proactively dressed state for Halloween is Mississippi 
• Alabama is both in the top 3 of most scandalous costumes & most opposed to revealing outfits
• The most trending scandalous Halloween costume for 2023 was the “devil”

States going scantily-clad this Halloween

Some states are bearing more skin than others and it might not geographically be where you think! The reputably conservative states aren’t as covered as popularly believed when it comes to spooky season.  

The state most likely to dress in revealing Halloween costumes this year is Mississippi, with 40% of Missippians responding that their outfit of choice would lean on the risque side. Spicy South Dakota comes in second place with 33.33% of respondents also indicating that they’ll be choosing a more revealing Halloween costume this year. To round out the top three, Alabama celebrates the festivities in its hottest wear, with 31% dressing up in something scandalous. 

Keeping it spooky, keeping it classy

So it seems the Southerners are going for hottie Halloween with states like Mississippi and Alabama stating that they’ll choose revealing costumes, but which states have decided to go a bit more traditional? In the bottom three, we have Ohio, Colorado, and, in last place, Wisconsin. All three states had less than 5% of their respondents choosing risque Halloween costumes. 

If Mississippi was Regina George in a bunny suit then Wisconsin is Cady Heron’s take on “zombie ex-wife.” Wisconsin had the lowest percentage of revealing costumes. Instead, 78% of Wisconsinites said they’ll be choosing the classics. Think: princesses, superheroes, mummies, and vampires. Good ole’ fashion Halloween garb. 

How America feels about the not-so-conservative costumes

In the land of the free, you might have all the liberty you want to dress as you please, but that doesn’t always come without criticism. For some, Halloween can be quite contentious as it is, and adding scandalous attire to the mix stirs up further emotion.  But how do Americans really feel about bearing more skin on the night of spooks? 

Not all that bothered, actually. Nationally, 48% of Americans responded that they didn’t mind if people dressed provocatively for Halloween. When we break it down at a state level, the data gets a bit more interesting. Remember Alabama, our third most scandalously-dressed state for Halloween? Interestingly, they’re also one the states to most strongly oppose revealing Halloween attire. Over 20% of the Alabama population indicated that they were “completely against” scandalous Halloween costumes. Talk about an awkward time at the costume party. 

For every hater, there’s a fan and that’s especially true in states like Vermont. Vermont’s general “anything goes” attitude rolls over to ice cream, Bernie Sanders, and scandalous Halloween costumes. A shocking half of Vermont residents are not only cool with skin-showing outfits, but they’re completely in favor.  Maybe it’s easy to preach when October temperatures average in the 40’s. 

Tricks, treats, and trending “scandalous” Halloween costumes

Feeling inspired to dress up and show off this Halloween? We also asked our respondents what they were planning to wear for the night of haunts. For those who said they’d be wearing something scandalous for the holiday, we averaged the top write-in responses and found what would be trending this season. Here are the top trending scandalous Halloween costumes for women:

1. Devil
2. Barbie
3. Cat
4. Wednesday Addams

That’s not all! The men are taking part in the fun too. From the male respondents who said they’d be dressing scandalously this year, they had their own write-in results to add. Out of all the male responses, we found the trending outfits this year are gladiators, cowboys, and… Hugh Hefner? 

Some honorable mentions for write-ins include “Freddie Mercury, but in skin-tight clothes,” “sexy siracha sauce” and, last but not least, “myself.” Queue “Sexy and I Know It” by LMFAO. 

Methodology

We surveyed over 3,000 Americans in October 2023 about their Halloween costume preferences and opinions. The age range was between 18-70 with all participants currently residing in the United States. Of the respondents, 49% were male, 48.3% were female and >1% were transgender or non-binary.

Fair Use

Feel free to use the data or visuals on this page for non-commercial purposes. Please be sure to include proper attribution linking back to this page to give credit to the authors.

For any press questions, please contact riley.clark[at]casino.org