1. Every child in the UK receives an average of 8.8 Easter eggs every year – double their recommended calorie intake for a whole week.
2. The largest ever Easter egg hunt was in Florida, where 9,753 children searched for 501,000 eggs.
3. In 2007, an Easter egg covered in diamonds sold for almost £9 million.
4. When people gorge on a chocolate Easter bunny, 76 per cent bite off the ears first, 5 per cent go for the feet and 4 per cent opt for the tail.
5. With all those eggs and other chocolate treats for family, relatives, loved ones and friends, it should be no surprise that households spend an average of £75 on Easter each year.
6. In the USA, 90 million chocolate bunnies and 91.4 billion eggs are produced each year. At Easter, Americans also consume more than 16 million jellybeans used to fill the hollow centre of Easter eggs, and that’s enough to circle the globe three times over.
7. The White House hosts an Easter Egg Roll on the front lawn each year. This tradition was started by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878.
8. Sales at Easter time make up 10 per cent of UK chocolate spending for the whole year.
9. The UK’s first chocolate egg was produced in 1873 by Fry’s of Bristol.
10. The tallest chocolate Easter egg was made in Italy in 2011. Standing 10.39 metres tall and weighing 7,200 kg, it was taller than a giraffe and heavier than an elephant. But Portugal is the home of the largest decorated Easter egg, which reached almost 15m in height and 8m in diameter when it was made in 2008.
14. Temptation can be too much and 43 per cent of kids say they eat their first chocolate egg before Easter Sunday, but the average time for children to eat their first Easter egg is 11am on Easter Sunday morning.
15. Almost one in five children (19 per cent) say they’ve made themselves ill by eating too much chocolate over the Easter holidays.