Haunting Statistics

Just how many people out there actually believe in ghosts?  Are most of them men or women?  Does belief in ghosts and hauntings change with age?  What about from country to country?  I find that these are questions that many believers find themselves wondering. After doing some research, I found several interesting articles on the subjects of who, exactly, believes.  And, well, for the skeptics, statistics just don't lie.


Over the years, many polls have been taken to answer many of society's most pressing questions.  The belief in ghosts is one of these.  This article from MSNBC reports that in 2007 1 in 3 people in America believe in the existence of ghosts.  That's one third of Americans - the same amount of Americans that say they are baseball fans.  Even more staggering than that is that 23% of Americans actually have SEEN or HEARD a ghost themselves.  3 in 10 Americans have reported waking up in the middle of the night sensing a strange presence in their rooms (check out my earlier post, Haunted . . . that's 3 people right there!). 

In this article,  CBS news breaks down these statistics further.  They report that two years later, in 2009 up to 48% of Americans reported to believe in ghosts.  Of all the people that believe, 56% were women, and 54% were under the age of 45. 

Take a look at the breakdown of believers for yourself:

                             All

                                  48%

                                  Men

                                  38%

                                  Women

                                   56%

                                  Under 45

                                   54%

                                  45 and over

                                   41%

Now, I think it is interesting to compare American results to the results from another part of the world.  This poll was taken in the UK.  It reports that 57% of people believed in ghosts.  That number is staggering compared to the American statistics.  I'm not sure as to why the numbers would be so different, but, according to the survey author of the UK poll, Jan Walsh, "the minds of the British public are open to all kinds of other-worldly phenomenon." 

This poll shows that in Canada, nearly 50% of people believe in ghosts.  Again, this is higher than the American results, although only 18% of Canadians say that they have actually had an experience with an entity.  Similarly to America, about half of the believers are women. 

The differences between the paranormal beliefs of Americans versus the beliefs of other countries around the world are interesting.  But, it appears that of the people that believe, most tend to be women and young in age.  Check out the poll over on my side bar and let me know if you belief in ghosts or other paranormal entities!