Popular Halloween costumes: Witches, superheroes, athletes, oh my!

Grown-ups want to be witches while kids are opting for princesses and superheroes.

At least that’s the expert assessment of what partygoers will choose as costumes this Halloween.

Almost 6 million adults are masquerading as a witch — black hats, warts and all – followed by vampires in the No. 2 spot (with 3.2 million people donning fangs and capes), according to the National Retail Federation.

PHOTOS: Top 10 most popular Halloween costumes

As for kids, nearly 10% are set on Cinderella, Snow White or other princess frocks, while another 10% are favoring Batman and Spider-Man costumes. The superhero uniform also makes the Top 10 list for adults.

“The biggest theme this year is superheroes,� said Julia Darrenkamp, spokeswoman at Party City. “That is due to all the blockbuster movies this year like the Avengers, Spider-Man and Batman, which are popular with men and women.�

Revelers are also looking to the year’s big events for costume ideas. Inspired by the London Summer Olympics, more than 1 million people will sport some sort of athlete uniform this year, the retail group said.

With the elections just weeks away, more than 760,000 politically conscious partygoers will don some sort of political costume.

“We’ll see plenty of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney look-alikes out and about for Halloween,� said Pam Goodfellow of the research firm BIGinsight. “However, we expect these rivals will be able to find some common ground over the punch bowl or a bag of candy.�

Halloween is a big business for the costume and candy industry. People are expected to spend $8 billion on the holiday this year, the survey said. Nearly $3 billion of that goes to costumes.

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