WASHINGTON — It may sound like a stretch, but the generosity of the Tooth Fairy tends to parallel the stock market’s performance.
This survey, most appropriately done by Delta Dental Inc., shows the Tooth Fairy is more generous in good times, and less so when stocks pull back.
Delta Dental, a nonprofit association, says its “Original Tooth Fairy Poll” shows the average cash gift left for a child is now $3.91, down 10.32 percent in the last year.
A quick Bloomberg data check shows the S & P 5090 Index’s one year performance is minus 9.5 percent.
Lost teeth are still worth a lot of money.
Delta Dental says in 2015, the Tooth Fairy (most frequently mom, not dad) left a total of $256 million to children.
Delta Dental says the Tooth Fairy visits 86 percent of U.S. homes. She is most generous in the Northeast, leaving an average $5.27, and least generous in the Midwest, leaving an average $3.11.
But sometimes the Tooth Fairy forgets to pick up a tooth. It’s happened in 35 percent of homes at least once, with pickups in the Midwest to be most likely to be forgotten.
The survey of 1,307 parents with children between the ages of six and 12 was conducted between Dec. 16, 2015 and Jan. 14, 2016. The margin of error is 2.7 percent.
