By Tim Binnall
A new study released in honor of spooky season has determined what it contends are the most haunted states in America. Produced by the online gambling hub casino.ca, the spine-tingling survey relied on the sizeable Ghosts of America sightings database combined with "social media posts." The total number of collected reports was then compared to population data to develop a ranking system of suspected spirit encounters per capita. Taking the top spot in the study was New York State with 81 events per 10,000 people. Rounding out the top five were Texas, Louisiana, California, and Utah.
Meanwhile, despite its rich history of haunted happenings, Georgia surprisingly found itself at the bottom of the rankings with a mere "6 sightings per 10,000 people." The new study is not the first such attempt at ranking America's most haunted states as a similar project made headlines back in 2023. That effort produced remarkably different results with Texas, Maine, Florida, Vermont, and North Dakota as the top locations for ghost encounters. At the bottom of the 2023 rankings were New Jersey, Arizona, Nevada, New York, and Maryland.The dueling studies are something of a testament to the unpredictable nature of the paranormal, where trying to codify the curious can often lead to more uncertainty than answers.