San Antonio ranks 11th in national ghost study despite high number of haunted sites
Vivint data shows the city has the second most purported haunted locations in the U.S., but residents report far fewer sightings than peers in Austin and Dallas.
By Sienna Foster ·
San Antonio holds the second highest count of purportedly haunted locations in the United States, yet its residents reported one of the lowest volumes of actual ghost sightings. A new report by home security provider Vivint evaluated 74 American cities to determine which are the spookiest based on paranormal activity and related commercial factors.
The study identified 56 sites in San Antonio claimed to be haunted. Only Los Angeles, with 61 such locations, ranked higher. Austin, located north of San Antonio, recorded 21 purportedly haunted places. Despite this disparity in physical locations, the two Texas cities produced vastly different numbers of reported supernatural encounters in the past month.
Austin logged 115 reported ghost sightings last month, the highest total among all cities in the dataset. San Antonio reported just 27 sightings, a figure representing less than one quarter of Austin's count. This difference in reported activity helped place San Antonio in 11th position on the study's Spookiness Index, while Austin finished eighth. New Orleans also ranked below Austin in the overall standings.
Texas dominated the category for reported ghost sightings, with Austin, Dallas, and Houston securing the top three positions nationwide. Researchers derived these rankings by analyzing seven specific variables. These metrics included the number of haunted places, haunted house attractions, paranormal-themed businesses, and the frequency of spooky Google searches. The company used data collected in September to normalize each measure before combining them into a single score.
Other indicators in the report suggest San Antonio is less actively engaged with paranormal culture than its high number of haunted sites might imply. The city recorded the second lowest concentration of psychics and astrologers in the study, with 0.73 practitioners per 10,000 residents. San Antonio also registered 163 spooky Google searches per 10,000 residents, the lowest rate among the four Texas cities appearing in the top 20 of the index.
Source: San Antonio Current
