WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Expressing one’s love to another is a celebrated custom on Valentine’s Day; whereby sweethearts and family members present gifts to one another, such as cards, candy, flowers and other symbols of affection. Opinions differ as to who was the original Valentine, but the most popular theory is that he was a clergyman who was executed for secretly marrying couples in ancient Rome. In A.D. 496, Pope Gelasius I declared Feb. 14 as Valentine Day.

The question is how many engagement or wedding rings will be sold on Valentine’s Day? Let’s take a look at the number of rings sold in February. 24,973 is the number of jewelry stores in the United States in 2009.  Jewelry stores offer engagement, wedding and other rings to couples of all ages. In February 2011, these stores sold $2.27 billion in merchandise.  The census doesn’t let us know how much of these sales are wedding related.  As you can see Valentine’s Day is huge month for Jewelers. You can see more stats and information down below.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns, NAICS code (448310),http://censtats.census.gov/cgi-bin/cbpnaic/cbpdetl.pl and Monthly Retail Trade and Food Serviceshttp://www.census.gov/retail

The merchandise at these locations could well have been produced at one of the nation’s 1,547 jewelry manufacturing establishments.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns, NAICS code (339911),http://censtats.census.gov/cgi-bin/cbpnaic/cbpdetl.pl