High spirits: belief in ghosts shows no sign of dying out, study finds

It is the time of the year when the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest, and spiritual creatures walk the Earth once more.

- Hannah Al-Othman

But, it appears, you are more likely to be visited by a ghost if you are under 35 years old, while spirits tend to avoid the East Midlands.

New research from the National Folklore Survey has found that, across England, more than a third of people believe in ghosts and supernatural beings, but belief in the paranormal varies according to age and geography.

Led by academics from Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Hertfordshire and Chapman University in California, it is the first of its kind since the last Survey of English Language and Folklore, more than 60 years ago.

Just over one in three people in England said they believed in ghosts or the spirits of the deceased, with younger people aged 25-34 the most likely to believe in the paranormal, which also includes magical beings, possession, spells, psychics, angels and demons.

"Folklore has exploded on social media," Dr Sophie Parkes-Nield, one of the researchers, said. "On things like TikTok, there's PaganTok and WitchTok. Young people are really embracing folklore and making it their own."

"That's partly why we wanted to rerun this survey now," Dr David Clarke, another researcher, said, adding the previous one "was long before internet and social media existed".