These 10 Cities Are Ranked The Spookiest in the US!

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.