Seattle, Portland rank high on list of top US cities for vampires

Vampires take note: Apparently, the Pacific Northwest is a pretty good place for you to live.

In an effort to bring attention to the national blood shortage the American Red Cross cited last month, the team at LawnLove, has released a report listing the best places in the U.S. for vampires, or other beings who are in need of blood.

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As we’re in the month of October and Halloween is on the horizon, the company isn’t using their report to make any firm conclusions about the state of vampires in the U.S., just that some cities provide better experiences for those beings than others.

LawnLove, which earlier this year released a detailed study about the best U.S. cities to survive a zombie apocalypse, enlisted experts to comment on the state of vampires in 2023 and one noted the continued — and seemingly everlasting — enthusiasm and passion in these and other mythical scary beings.

“The enduring interest in monsters in popular culture, including recent waves of vampire, werewolf, and zombie-related stories, suggests the powerful hold that these figures have on the modern imagination,” Sara Ross, Ph.D., said in a statement provided to LawnLove. Ross is a professor and the department chair for the Media and Theater Arts program at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.

“The study of popular monsters can provide an understanding of how our society has dealt with questions of death, youth, religion, sexuality, addiction, delinquency, disease, and a wide variety of other social issues,” Ross continued. “Understanding monsters in literature, film, and television helps us to better understand the culture that has produced them.”

Looking more at the report, LawnLove ranked the 500 largest U.S. cities for vampires and the city of Seattle ranked 9th out of 500.

Portland, Oregon, actually finished ahead of Seattle, coming in at No. 7.

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Other notable rankings from the state of Washington included Tacoma coming in at No. 52, Spokane placing at No. 83 and Yakima (No. 131) Bellevue (134), Vancouver (135), Everett (142), Bellingham (143) and Federal Way (150) all finishing in the Top 150.

Forks, the setting of the the famed “Twilight” novels by Stephenie Meyer and the movie series based on the books starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, didn’t make the list since it has a population under 4,000. But Ross called out the small city on the Olympic Peninsula as a “longtime known (favorite).” Forks also hosts the Forever Twilight in Forks Festival every fall.

How the rankings were determined

In this report, LawnLove, which still bills itself as “a modern, tech-enabled marketplace for lawn care services,” compared the 500 biggest U.S. cities based on five categories they deemed most important for vampires: Food and drink, lair safety, deterrents, entertainment and community.

For food and drink, the number of potential victims, blood centers, blood drives and slaughterhouses are all weighed. In addition, whether cannibalism is legal in a city also was considered.

For lair safety, the number of casket suppliers, the share of homes with basements and a city’s historical cloud cover were examined and ranked.

The deterrents category takes into account multiple metrics, including historical annual average percentage of sunshine, the number of Christian Churches and the number of garlic festivals.

In entertainment, the number of nightlife options, vampire-friendly clubs and vampire tours were part of the score.

Finally, the number of vampire groups make up the community category.

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Seattle scored in the Top 6 in community and entertainment, helping the city achieve its high ranking. Portland finished at No. 7 in entertainment and No. 9 in food and drink.

Both Pacific Northwest cities finished lower in the lair safety ranking with Seattle ranked at No. 79 and Portland coming in at No. 122.

Other numbers

New York City finished as the No. 1 city for vampires. It scored high above the competition thanks to finishing No. 1 in food and drink, community and entertainment. The Emmy-nominated FX comedy “What We Do in the Shadows” is based in the city’s borough of Staten Island.

Rounding out the Top 5 are Chicago (which finished No. 1 in lair safety); Columbus, Ohio; Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

LawnLove noted that big cities “(flew) to the top of our ranking with a plethora of potential victims and blood donation centers.”

The company’s analysis noted that cities across New England and the Midwest dominate, “thanks to lower rates of sunshine and many underground lairs (or basements).”

The bottom seven cities on the list are all in Arizona with Buckeye coming in dead last at No. 500. LawnLove called out that the Arizona cities were in the bottom 10 with due to “bountiful sunshine and few basements to evade the rays.”