Want To See A Ghost This Halloween? Come To Rural Iowa

Halloween is just days away so if you are still looking to get into the spirit of the spooky season, living in Iowa is a great start.

Earlier this week, we told you about how data from a 2022 study ranked Iowa as number 10 in most ghost sightings per capita.

The website porch.com dives into ghost sightings and took data from GhostsOfAmerica.com which is an “online authority” on ghost sightings.

The website starts to look into states that have the most and fewest ghost sightings. Those states that have the fewest ghost sightings, such as Florida and New York have higher/denser populations. States that saw the least amount of ghost sightings such as Maine and North Dakota have lesser populations.

In fact, the website says “an overwhelming majority of encounters with the spirits take place in small towns.”

Of all the recorded ghost sightings that have been reported, 58 percent occurred in towns with 25,000 or fewer people. About 12 percent of those sightings are in towns with up to 1,000 people.

Iowa is a very rural place meaning we are no strangers to the small-town atmosphere. Our biggest city, Des Moines has a population of around 202,000 whereas a city like New York has a population of 8.4 million.

So, looking at the ghost sighting statistics, in comparison to Iowa’s demographics, we can see why Iowa would rank 10 in the country for ghost sightings. Looking at the populations of Iowa cities on Iowa-demographics.com, only 19 cities in our state have over 25,000 people living in them.

So, if you live in rural Iowa during this spooky season, be on the lookout for any ghosts!