St. Augustine ranks among top spookiest cities — but not for what you might think

St. Augustine's newest contributyion to the National Registry of Historic Places.

It may come as no surprise that St. Augustine — the oldest living city in the country — is spooky.

But a new list from Vivint ranking the spookiest places in America found that the Old City is creepy for a unique reason. The report weighed city rankings by five criteria: ghost sightings, haunted places, supernatural readings, funeral services and haunted house attractions.

How did St. Augustine make the cut? Turns out, it’s a popular final destination.

That’s right. St. Augustine took the No. 4 spot for hosting the most funeral services per 100,000 people. In fact, that was the only category in which the city ranked among the Top 5.

The city ranked sixth among U.S. cities for its number of supernatural readings and haunted house attractions.

And although you may think the city’s age and odd number of funeral services would lend itself to be a haunted hot spot, St. Augustine didn’t even make the Top 20 for number of ghost sightings and haunted places. Instead, the city was laid to rest at No. 26 in both departments.

So what about Florida as a whole? Well, the Sunshine State did manage to break through among the Top 10 spookiest states, coming in right at No. 10. When analyzing states, the report only weighed the number of haunted places and ghost sightings. So, maybe there is some fright to be had after all.

Wondering what the top ranked destinations were?

Well, California took the top spot as the most haunted state, ranking No. 1 in haunted places and No. 2 in ghost sightings. The report credited a haunted forest in SoCal full of abandoned ruins from the state’s mining heyday.

As for spooky metros, Stowe, Vermont is mustering up the most boos. While their ghost sightings and haunted places are lacking, there seems to be a significant supernatural presence attracting physic readings, funeral services and haunted house attractions, which the city ranked in the Top 3.