Vivint Study Ranks San Antonio 11th in Hauntings
Despite having the second-highest number of purported haunted sites in the nation, the city recorded fewer recent ghost sightings than its northern neighbor Austin.
By Amir Navarro ·
San Antonio holds a paradoxical position in the supernatural inventory of the United States. While the city contains a vast number of locations rumored to be haunted, the actual frequency of reported ghost activity remains comparatively low. This disconnect places the Texas city in a middling position on a new national scale of paranormal activity.
Home security company Vivint recently released a report analyzing 74 U.S. cities to determine their level of hauntings. The study identified 56 purportedly haunted places in San Antonio. That figure makes the city the second most haunted location in the country, trailing only Los Angeles, which recorded 61 such sites. By comparison, Austin, located directly to the north, has only 21 purportedly haunted places.
The data for recent activity tells a different story. In September, San Antonio logged just 27 reported ghost sightings. Austin recorded 115 sightings during the same period, a figure higher than any other city in the study. This disparity in recent sightings contributed to San Antonio ranking 11th on Vivint's Spookiness Index, while Austin secured the eighth position. The ranking placed both Texas cities ahead of New Orleans.
Vivint calculated the index using seven specific factors. These included reported sightings, the number of haunted sites, haunted house attractions, paranormal-themed businesses, and spooky Google searches. The researchers normalized each measure and combined them into a single score using data collected in September. Texas dominated the ghost sightings category overall, with Austin, Dallas, and Houston occupying the top three spots.
Other metrics in the report suggest San Antonio residents are less engaged with the paranormal than the high number of haunted sites implies. The city had the second-lowest concentration of psychics and astrologers among the studied cities, at 0.73 per 10,000 residents. San Antonio also recorded 163 spooky Google searches per 10,000 residents, the lowest figure among the four Texas cities in the study's top 20.
Source: San Antonio Current
