Easter Fun Facts: 16 Billion Jelly Beans Made for Easter

Original story by Suzy Ravasio Chudzik

Easter is here! Here are some fun facts to celebrate:

• What did you say? When taking a bite into a chocolate bunny, 76 percent of Americans prefer to bite off the ears first.
• More than 16 billion jelly beans are made for Easter. If you lined them all side-by-side, they would circle the Earth nearly three times. It's also enough to completely fill a nine-story office building. 
• Bunny Bonanza! Ninety million chocolate Easter bunnies are made for Easter each year. Adults prefer milk chocolate (65%) over dark chocolate (27%).
• Bean Business. Children's favorite flavors are cherry (20%), strawberry (12%), grape (10%), lime (7%), and blueberry (6%).
• Now's the time to take advantage of your kids. Candy rules...and 75 percent of kids report they are willing to do extra chores for more Easter candy.
• That's a lot of candy! Americans spend an average of $1.9 billion on Easter candy every year.
• Give it Up.The 10 most popular things gave up for lent include alcohol, chocolate and sweets, cursing,  Facebook, television, junk food, pop, smoking, texting and gossiping.
• Really? You know those wire egg dippers that come in the egg coloring kits (and never work)? If you lay all of them from end-to-end, they would equal the height of 6,628 Washington Monuments.
• All in a day's work. It takes 24-26 hours for a hen to complete the process of laying an egg. And, South American Ameraucana and Araucan chickens can lay colored eggs in hues of green, blue, or pink.

Editor's note: This story ran on Patch sites last year. These numbers are general estimates that do not pertain to a particular year.