For the second year in a row, jewelry tops the list of Valentine's Day gifts, according to an annual survey released by the National Retail Federation. U.S. consumers are expected to spend $4.7 billion for jewelry-related items on Cupid's favorite holiday, up 9.3% compared to 2017.

Jewelry is not only the most popular category in 2018 — outperforming an "evening out" ($3.7 billion), flowers ($2.0 billion) and clothing ($1.9 billion) — but it is also the fastest growing.

The "evening out" category is down 2% from 2017 and 17.6% from 2016. Flowers and clothing were both flat, compared to 2017.

Rounding out the most popular Valentine's Day gifts for 2018 are candy ($1.8 billion), gift cards/gift certificates ($1.5 billion) and greeting cards ($894 million).

The NRF reports that overall spending on Valentine's Day gifts will reach a near-record $19.6 billion in 2018, narrowly missing the high-water mark of $19.7 billion in 2016. Valentine spending in 2017 was $18.2 billion, according to the NRF.

Jewelry will be the gift of choice for 19% of Valentine's Day consumers in 2018, the exact percentage tallied in 2017. This compares to an "evening out" (to be gifted by 36%), flowers (17%), clothing (17%), candy (55%), gift cards/gift certificates (15%) and greeting cards (46%).

The average amount spent on Valentine's Day gifts in 2018 is expected to creep up to $143.56 from last year's $136.57. That's an increase of 5.1%.

Valentine gift-givers will spend an average of $88.98 on their significant other/spouse ($12.1 billion), $25.29 on other family members, such as children or parents ($3.5 billion), $7.26 on children’s classmates/teachers ($991 million), $7.19 on friends ($982 million), $5.50 on pets ($751 million) and $4.79 on co-workers ($654 million).

The overall observance of Valentine’s Day will go up a tick in 2018. Exactly 55% of respondents said they will celebrate on February 14, up 1 percentage point compared to 2017, but down from 63.4% in 2007.

The NRF’s 2018 Valentine’s Day spending survey was designed to gauge consumer behavior and shopping trends related to Valentine’s Day. The survey was conducted for NRF by Prosper Insights & Analytics. The poll of 7,277 consumers was conducted from January 3-10, 2018, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.

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