With Halloween right around the corner, online gambling website BonusFinder has conducted a spooky study that has named Texas as the most haunted state in the country.
The report, titled “Which Is the Most Haunted State in America?”, sought to uncover which U.S. areas amassed the most apparitions based on a number of fright-filled factors.
To put together its list, BonusFinder teamed up with Ghostquest — a haunted location database — to uncover the paranormal phenomena that occur in each state, along with acquiring relevant data from Ghosts of America and Find a Grave to track ghost sightings and cemetery numbers respectively.
Through its findings, BonusFinder found that Texans had collectively experienced a whopping total of 7,517 ghost sightings, which is around 247.7 sightings per 100,000 people. This was by far the highest number of paranormal discoveries in the nation.
The study attributes the high volume of ghost sightings to areas such as the Alamo, which is reportedly rumored to be inhabited by the lingering spirits of the soldiers who once fought there, according to BonusFinder.
In addition to perceiving poltergeists, Texas also ranked the highest in the country for haunted locations (925) and paranormal investigators (158). The Lone Star State also sports the second-highest number of cemeteries, with 13,710 burial grounds residing throughout.
Because Texas led almost every category, BonusFinder gave the state a score of 9.8 out of 10 on the ghost-o-meter.
Other American states that found their way into the top 10 — but were not on the same ghastly level as Texas — were Maine (9.0 out of 10), Florida (8.8), Vermont (8.8), North Dakota (8.5), South Dakota (8.4), West Virginia (7.6), Kentucky (7.5), Montana (7.3) and Iowa (7.1).
If supernatural experiences are not quite your jam though, you might want to consider visiting less-haunted states like New Jersey (0.8 out of 10), Arizona (0.9), Nevada (1.0), New York (1.2) and Maryland (1.6).
To view the full report, visit the BonusFinder website.