These 10 Cities Are Ranked The Spookiest in the US!
October 31, 2018 by Tracey Velt
In preparation for Halloween, FlixBus has mapped haunted houses, spooky tours, and parades across the US to rank the country’s Top 100 Spookiest Cities.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, offers the #1 spookiest experience in the US, boasting 131 haunted places and 13 Halloween parades per 100,000 people.
Of course, you shouldn’t miss the notoriously fright-inducing Salem, Massachusetts. The city of witches is part of the Top 3 offering 43 haunted places, 19 spooky tours and 5 halloween parades.
Chandler, Arizona, ranks as the least-scary city, with just 0.3 haunted places per 100,000 people. This may be a pitstop to pass on this year’s terror tour.
The affordable intercity bus service, FlixBus, has released a comprehensive ranking of the scariest cities in the United States in time for Halloween. To find out which cities are the most frightening the company conducted a comprehensive analysis resulting in the Spookiest Cities in the US Ranking 2018. This Halloween, whether you want a ghostly adventure or prefer to stay away from the eeriness, this analysis will help you map the most-chilling travel destinations
To create the ranking, FlixBus researched and compiled a list of the most haunted places and events across the country to narrow down the Top 100 scariest cities. The list takes into account the total number of haunted houses, spooky tours and Halloween parades for each respective city. The final ranking was then calculated with the city which has the highest sum amongst the criteria per 100,000 people taking the first place.
“We’ve pulled together the spookiest ranking to give our customers the chance to plane their Halloween with experience at the forefront. We know holidays are often a time for adventure, new experiences, and to give yourself a thrill: at FlixBus, that’s what we’re all about,” says Pierre Gourdain, Managing Director of FlixBus USA. “We’ve ranked a range of exciting destinations along our usual routes to make your planning – and your journey – as smooth yet thrilling as possible this Halloween season.”
The Top 10 Spookiest Cities:
# RANK
CITY
STATE
HAUNTED PLACES
(per 100.000 people)
SPOOKY TOURS
(per 100.000 people)
HALLOWEEN PARADES
(per 100.000 people)
1
Gettysburg
Pennsylvania
131,234
0,000
13,123
2
Saint Augustine
Florida
70,028
49,020
7,003
3
Salem
Massachusetts
48,379
19,352
4,838
4
Savannah
Georgia
6,146
6,146
0,683
5
Des Moines
Iowa
4,597
4,138
0,919
6
Cincinnati
Ohio
4,315
3,319
1,328
7
Norfolk
Virginia
2,452
4,087
2,043
8
Chesapeake
Virginia
1,664
4,576
1,248
9
Jersey City
New Jersey
3,693
0,000
3,693
10
Richmond
Virginia
5,726
0,440
0,881
The cities that rank in the bottom 10 for spookiness:
# RANK
CITY
STATE
HAUNTED PLACES
(per 100.000 people)
SPOOKY TOURS
(per 100.000 people)
HALLOWEEN PARADES
(per 100.000 people)
100
Chandler
Arizona
0,395
0,000
0,000
99
Scottsdale
Arizona
0,000
0,000
0,400
98
New York
New York
0,244
0,116
0,116
97
Los Angeles
California
0,500
0,125
0,050
96
Oakland
California
0,470
0,000
0,235
95
Irvine
California
0,360
0,000
0,360
94
Chicago
Illinois
0,479
0,110
0,147
93
Gilbert
Arizona
0,413
0,000
0,413
92
San Jose
California
0,580
0,097
0,193
91
Santa Ana
California
0,898
0,000
0,000
A few findings from the analysis:
With 10 haunted locations per 100,000 people in total, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is the spookiest city in the country, ranking first.
The city of Chandler, Arizona, is the least spooky city of the analyzed 100 cities, with one haunted house in total and zero spooky tours and parades.
Houston, Texas, has the most haunted places. 23 in total, but just one per 100,000 people.
You will find not a single haunted house in Chula Vista, California or in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The city of Virginia Beach, Virginia, offers the most spooky tours, with 16 in total and 3.5 per 100,000 people.
In 23 of the 100 analyzed cities across the US, there is not a single spooky tour.
New York City, New York, and Jersey City, New Jersey, each respectively organise 10 Halloween parades in total. In the case of hosting parades they are rank first.
10 from 100 US cities do not host any Halloween parades.
