West Virginia ranked 5th most festive Halloween state

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — A recent consumer survey ranks West Virginia as the state that is the fifth most excited about Halloween overall.

It’s no secret that West Virginians love to pull out all the stops for Halloween, whether it’s for a 385 Halloween inflatable display or even a 40-foot-long pirate ship complete with singing jack-o-lanterns and a dancing skeletal crew, but a recent study from Consumer Affairs is trying to quantify West Virginia’s love for spooky season.

Consumer Affairs used a combination of Google Trends and YouTube search data to estimate Halloween interest in each state (and Washington D.C.) between Sept. 2022 and Sept. 2023. West Virginia placed in the top five, with New Hampshire ranking number one, and Washington D.C. ranking dead last.

According to the survey, West Virginia searched for “Halloween music” on YouTube more than any other state. West Virginia also searched for “Halloween decorations” the most, and was also searching the second most for “Halloween movies” and “Halloween costumes.”

Halloween-related locations accounted for 60% of a state’s score, such as the number of Spirit Halloween stores, pumpkin patches per capita, and the number of haunted attractions per capita. West Virginia was listed as having 22 different haunted attractions, the fifth most haunted attractions per capita in the United States.

Harpers Ferry was listed by Consumer Affairs as West Virginia’s most haunted location; the town was also listed as the state’s most haunted location earlier this month by SmokeyMountains.com. Weston was also ranked as West Virginia’s most haunted city just last week.

Methodology and Google search trends data for the study can be viewed here.