Valentine’s Day in Ireland: what women want and what men really think

What are the expectations of Irish people towards the holiday of love? What does the perfect Valentine’s Day look like according to women and men? Which gifts are the most expected and which should be avoided? Picodi Analysis Team decided to look into one of the most commercialised holidays in the world and check how much love is still there.

The popularity of this holiday is evident if you look at the number of Irish people who declare that they celebrate Valentine’s Day — a staggering 54%. Although an overwhelming majority of people prepare a surprise mainly for their significant other, there are some who don’t leave out their friends (9%) or relatives (18%).

An average Irish person is going to spend €116 on a Valentine’s Day gift. Men spend around €53 more than women do: €140 vs €87.

What’s interesting is that more than half (57%) of Irish people don’t think about Valentine’s Day gifts until February. This is consistent with Picodi’s internal data, according to which we can observe a spike in shopping activity around two weeks before Valentine’s Day. Especially in demand are products such as jewellery or perfumes. 14% of Irish people leave shopping until the last moment — 13th and 14th of February.

Women’s take on Valentine’s Day

What is it that sparks joy in a woman’s heart on Valentine’s Day – a gift, displays of affection and love or perhaps a promise of commitment? The survey results show that both material and non-material aspects are equally important for the majority of women (54%). 17% of women find gifts to be important on Valentine’s Day whereas 29% of respondents would rather spend time with their partner.

Women chose flowers (64%), jewellery (49%), perfumes (42%), clothing (40%) and sweets (37%) to be the perfect Valentine’s Day gift whereas sex toys (41%), plush toys (29%), home appliances (24%) and money (22%) were deemed as unpopular gift choices. Interestingly, sweets were also voted as the least desirable gift by 15% of the surveyed women.

What is the perfect way to spend Valentine’s Day according to women? The survey results don’t give the perfect recipe for a successful Valentine’s Day date, however, among the most popular activities were having a romantic dinner in a restaurant (34%), going to the movies (29%), watching a movie at home (27%), taking a romantic bath (18%) and… making love (13%).

It turns out that going out of town is a bad idea (34%), same as spending time actively (29%), relaxing doing nothing (27%), playing board games (24%) or seeing a play (15%).

Men’s take on Valentine’s Day

The answers of the surveyed men show that pleasing them can be more difficult than pleasing women. 42% of men expect a material gift from their partner, 42% does not want any gifts but they would like to spend time together with their significant other and 16% declares that they would like to get both.

The most desired gifts:

• Perfumes (34%)
• Money (31%)
• Gift voucher (29%)
• Valentine’s Day card (24%)
• Electronic devices (18%)

The least desired gifts:

• Valentine’s Day card (31%)
• Candies/chocolates (27%)
• Underwear (26%)
• Flowers (18%)
• Sex toys (16%)

Valentine’s Day cards seem to have stirred quite a controversy among men since they voted those items as both the most and least desirable gifts.

What does the perfect Valentine’s Day look for men? In this case, they partially agree with the fairer sex: men would like to go to the cinema or a restaurant, go out of town, watch a movie at home or cook dinner together. The list of unfortunate Valentine’s Day dates among men looks almost the same as the one compiled by women.

Because the thought is all that matters

On average Irish people spend €116 on gifts, which places them first in the ranking. They spend more than Thais (€114) and Brits (€108).

People don’t splurge on gifts in India ($35), Belarus ($34) and the Philippines ($33).

Want to prepare a romantic dinner for your significant other? Or maybe order some food and enjoy a movie night? Regardless of your plans, Picodi will help you save money with cashback and discount codes offered in shops such as Domino’s, Deliveroo and Just Eat.

Methodology

This report is based on results of a survey conducted in the second half of January 2019 among 6400 people from 38 countries where Valentine’s Day is celebrated. For currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate for January 2019.

Public Use

Are you willing to share the information and infographics about Valentine’s Day in Ireland and other countries with your readers? Feel free to use all the data and infographics presented in this report for both commercial and non-commercial purposes as long as you indicate the author of the research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage.