With spooky season fast approaching, party decoration experts at Ginger Ray have conducted a survey* to discover what Britain’s biggest fears are in 2023.
Not only can Ginger Ray reveal the UK’s most terrifying Halloween horrors, but also their real tangible terrors to unveil the collective psyche in all its spine-chilling glory.
Spiders are the #1 fear across all areas of the UK with a quarter of Brits (24%) saying they are scared of the creepy crawlies. The UK spewed the truth to reveal vomit as the second biggest fear, with 1 in 10 people (10%) horrified by hurl. The third biggest fear amongst Brits was ghosts, with 9% of people admitting to feeling dread towards the prospect of being haunted.
Whilst arachnophobia (fear of spiders) was the biggest fear across all regions of the UK, there was significant regional variation when it came to 2nd biggest spine chillers.
Regionally, the biggest scaredy cats in the UK are in Northern Ireland, as only 9% claimed to not be scared of anything. The bravest Brits that will take the most spooking this Halloween live in the East of England- almost a quarter (22%) had no fears. On a city level, Nottingham was home to the hardest-to-spook Brits followed closely by Glasgow and Norwich, with 22%, 21% and 20% respectively allegedly having no phobias. On the flipside those with the largest nervous disposition for Halloween horrors and the least likely to have no fears were Belfast (9%), Liverpool (11.4%) and Sheffield (11.5%).
However, in this day and age, many of our biggest fears are less supernatural and very real. Many of these were more feared than some of the most common phobias.
The UK’s most tangible terror was the cost of living crisis with over one-third (35%) of Brits fearing inflation and affordability. 27% are terrified of the inevitable- getting older and one in five (20%) fear the environmental crisis.
Image credit: Ginger Ray
With Halloween approaching, those looking to spook their friends might want to reconsider their decorations or Halloween costumes and opt for one of Britain’s biggest fears. For tips on how to decorate for Halloween with the scariest theme guaranteed, head to Ginger Ray.
2nd biggest fears in UK cities
Belfast – Vomit/Ghosts
Birmingham- Clowns
Brighton- Ghosts
Bristol- Clowns
Cardiff – Vomit
Edinburgh- Vomit
Glasgow- Bats
Leeds- Ghosts/Witches
Liverpool- Vomit
London- Vomit
Manchester- Blood
Newcastle- Blood
Norwich- Zombies
Nottingham- Ghosts/Zombies
Plymouth- Vomit
Sheffield- Monsters
Southampton- Vomit
Methodology
*The survey was conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Ginger Ray with a sample of 2004 nationally representative respondents. Quotas were applied to nationally representative proportions for age, gender and region. The survey fieldwork took place between 20.09.2023 and 22.09.2023. Censuswide abide by and employ members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles and are members of The British Polling Council.
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