Definition of Ghost town

"Ghost Town" was a 1981 number one hit for the British ska band, The Specials. It was written in response to Margaret Thatcher's policies which the band believed would increase the large-scale unemployment already present in Britain, particularly in the UK's industrialised north and Midlands regions. This was highly relevant to The Specials as they formed and lived in Coventry and saw the effects of the policies first-hand, as their city experienced some of the UK's worst unemployment at levels of 20%. It was also the summer of large-scale riots in Brixton, London and Toxteth, Liverpool amongst others, where there was alleged heavy-handed police treatment of young black men. Indeed the single was unusual in that it hit the top of the UK Top 40 at the exact time that riots occurred on the streets of Great Britain. It was one of those rare occasions when music reflected the social circumstances of the country succinctly.

A ghost town is a town that has been abandoned, usually because the economic activity that supported it has failed or because of natural or human-caused disasters such as war. The word is sometimes used in a deprecative sense to include areas where the current population is significantly less than it once was. It may be a partial ghost town such as Tonopah, Nevada or a neighborhood where people no longer live (like Love Canal). A tourist ghost town has significant economic activity from tourism, such as Oatman, Arizona, or numerous sites in Egypt, but cannot sustain itself except by tourism. A true ghost town is totally abandoned, such as Bodie, California, but often will see visitors. A ghost town may be a site where little or nothing remains above the soil surface, e.g. Babylon. Often a ghost town will still have significant art and architecture, e.g. Vijayanagara in India or Changan in China. Most large countries and regions contain locations that can be considered ghost towns.