Keep your snakes and clowns to yourself: Where Alabama ranks on the list of 'scariest' states

An eastern diamondback rattlesnake coiled and curious. (News Staff Photo/Joe Songer.)
Leada Gore | By Leada Gore |
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on July 20, 2014 at 11:35 PM, updated July 21, 2014 at 1:30 AM

Admit it. Clowns are a little creepy. And snakes aren't much better. Add shark attacks, spiders and dental visits to the list and you have the things nightmares are made of.

Creeped out yet? If you are, you are not alone and may feel right at (frighteningly) home in Alabama, which was recently ranked as the fifth "scariest" state in the country.

How was that determined, you ask? First, Estately, a real estate blog, listed the 15 most common fears, ranging from snakes and spiders to heights and even murder. Then, the site looked at the prevalence of each of these things in all 50 states.

Using those criteria, Alabama was ranked fifth scariest state in the country, behind only Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Louisiana. The top 10 was rounded out by North Carolina, California, South Carolina, Mississippi and Virginia.

Alabama's scary meter was driven by the high number of venomous snake species found in the state (3rd), the chances of going to prison (4th), murders (4th), total number of venomous spider species (5th) and number of hurricanes (6).

The website summed Alabama's scare-o-meter this way: "The odds of being bitten by a poisonous snake while doing pushups in a prison cell are probably highest in Alabama."

The top fear among Alabamians was snakes, followed closely by prison and murder. Turns out Alabamians aren't the least bit afraid of flying, ranking dead last in that category, or dentists, where it ranked 47th.

If Alabama is so scary, where does the site recommend you move? How about South Dakota? The website ranked it the least-scary or scared state in the county.

"South Dakota has the least to fear of any U.S. state. Think of it as a little slice of North Dakota, but devoid of clowns," the site noted.