Valentine’s Day. When Love Has A Price

February can be considered the month of love, especially romantic love. Although the legend of Saint Valentine is still uncertain, one of the legends goes that the patron saint of Valentine’s Day was killed after the celebration of a wedding between a Christian woman and an ancient-Roman pagan man. At that time, the Catholic Church tried to substitute the Lupercalia festivity, a pagan celebration on the 15th of February, with the memory of Saint Valentine dedicating the 14th to the saint. As it happened in ancient times, today the 14th of February is when we celebrate not only romantic love, but also a multi-billion dollar industry on dates, events, and Valentine’s Day presents.

To learn more, we asked 1,000 Australian residents that are currently in a relationship if they celebrate the 14th of February with their loved ones, what they plan to do, and most importantly, how much they plan to spend for a night of love.

Valentine’s Day Date. The Budget of Love

We asked our respondents if they consider Valentine’s Day to be a real holiday. Surprisingly, 79.9% of them say that they don’t consider the 14th to be a real holiday, BUT they still enjoy celebrating it with their partners.

We asked respondents how much they plan to spend on the day’s activities, gifts, and food. Despite only 31% of them exchanging gifts as a couple, we divided the respondents by their territories and states of residence to find where people are willing to spend more on their Valentine’s Day Date.

Northern Territory residents plan to spend the most on a Valentine’s celebration, with an average of $ 250.00. New South Wales residents conquered the second position, with a budget of $ 226.99 per couple. Taking the final place on the podium is Western Australia with an average of $ 209.30, followed by Victoria where residents are planning to spend $ 209.02 for Valentine’s Day. In the middle of our list is Queensland, with an average of $ 164.60 budgeted for Valentine’s Day, and South Australia with $ 153.00 on average. Moving down the list, we find the Australian Capital Territory where residents won’t spend more than $ 98.18 on average, and Tasmania with the lowest budget of $ 78.30 on average.

Splitting the Cost: A Traditional Dilemma

There is also a very controversial question when going on a date, and it’s about whether or not to split the cost. We asked respondents in our study “Should one person pay for a Valentine’s Day date or should they split the cost?”. A majority, 68.1% of respondents, believe that both parties should split the cost of a Valentine’s Day date.

We also learned there’s not much room for surprises in 2023. In fact, 74.5% of respondents across all states and territories say that they will be making Valentine’s Day plans together with their partners, instead of having just one of the two deciding for both.

What about the Valentine’s Day activity? Residents across the entire country indicated “Going out for dinner” is their top activity for the big night — a ringing endorsement for Australia’s culinary scene.

Methodology

In February 2023, we surveyed 1,000 Australians across the country that are currently dating, engaged, in a long-term relationship, or married. 56.8% of respondents were women, 40.3% were men, and 2.9% identified as non-binary.

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