Spectral figures at night in the streets of Los Angeles. AI-generated image.
Editor's Note: the Almanac includes the following not as established historical fact, but, rather, as with other stories in Mysterious L.A., as a part of the cultural fabric of Los Angeles County. We certainly do not actually equate actual census counts with subjective experience reports.
The Almanac reports population numbers for Los Angeles County, but, we offer no numbers for ghostly residents. According to Find A Grave, a website in which contributors provide records from cemeteries around the world, Los Angeles County has at least 2.7 million memorialized (marked) gravesites, dating back to 1774. That leaves a lot of potential for lingering departed spirits in the community. In fact, Los Angeles County is said to have a rich history of ghost stories, going back to at least the late 1800s (see Mysterious L.A.: Haunted Los Angeles County.
We discovered a website that actually collects reports of ghost sightings by location. According to Ghosts of America, more than 1,300 reported ghost sightings were reported for Los Angeles County. The website states that, although they are unable to verify reports, only stories they find believable are posted and those that end up suspect are removed. We could not determine the overall date range for these 1,300+ reports, because that would have required that we sift through each individual report. So we're not offering that here. Interestingly, the top ghost-sighting locations in L.A. County, through October 2024, were Palmdale (54 reported sightings), Montebello (48), Whittier (43), Pomona (41), and Azusa (35). We have no explanation for why these communities might be reported ghostly hotspots.
