In the flurry of flower-buying in advance of Valentine’s Day last year, it was Kerry men who spent the most in the florist, new data indicates.
The peak day for spending in florists by men was February 13th, just before the big day with €505,000 spent, according to figures from AIB on its customer spending.
The busiest period was actually between 4pm and 5pm on the 14th, with the bank attributing the spike to people making a last-minute trip to the florists on their way home from work.
The average spend in florists was €62 across Ireland but that differed by county. Kerry saw the single highest spent on flowers at €72, followed by Limerick at an average of €68 and Sligo at €67.
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People in Westmeath recorded the lowest spend in florists, at €54, followed by Donegal at €55, and Cavan, where the average spend was €57.
Nearly two-thirds of this spending was done in-store, rather than online, which accounted for 62 per cent of the expenditure.
Last year, when Valentine’s Day fell on a Friday, more than €143 million was spent by AIB customers that day across three million transactions. That represented an increase in spending of 45 per cent on the previous year, though that could have been influenced by it being a Wednesday in 2023.
This year, AIB expects spending patterns to be influenced by the Six Nations rugby match between Ireland and Italy at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
The anonymised and aggregated data comes from 67 million card transactions carried out by AIB customers during February 2024.
It indicates that women spent more than men at the cinema on Valentine’s Day 2025, accounting for 57 per cent of their spending. That reflects broader monthly trends that see women accounting for 62 per cent of cinema expenditure.
In terms of bigger gestures for Valentine’s Day, the average jewellery spend during the month of February was €142, with 63 per cent of that being done by men.
AIB customers aged between 25 and 44 made up more than half of jewellery spending; just 9 per cent came from those over 65.
