Data gathered since 1995 has revealed which states have reported the most UFO sightings since records began.
The research, gathered by the National UFO Reporting Center, showed that between all 50 states, Americans have reported 133,717 UFO sightings since 1995. In results mapped by Newsweek, the distribution of these sightings highlighted Western states as the most common areas to see UFOs, especially once the results were weighted for population size.
California emerged as the state with the highest number of UFO sightings, reporting more than 16,000 in the last 29 years. It was followed by Florida and Washington, which both reported more than 7,000 sightings. The state with the lowest number of sightings was South Dakota, with just 403 sightings. Delaware, with 423, was similarly UFO-free.
Adjusting the results for the population in each state revealed that UFOs were much more likely to be seen in Western states. Newsweek compared the UFO records with census data of each state’s population, producing results that showed each state’s UFO sightings per 1 million people.
Washington and Vermont had the highest number of reported UFO sightings in proportion to their population, with both states having almost a thousand sightings per million people.
The states surrounding Nevada, the home of Area 51, all reported high numbers of UFO sightings, with Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming showing over 700 sightings per million residents.
Additionally, the Northeastern tip of New England, consisting of New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, reported very high sightings considering their small populations. All three states recorded close to 900 sightings per million people living there.
This area is sometimes called “Lovecraft Country”, as it is frequently the setting of the supernatural horror stories written by H.P. Lovecraft, which often deal with contact from cosmic entities.
Professor Avi Loeb, a Harvard University professor of astronomy, told Newsweek that the greater cluster of reported sightings in the West could be due to nearby military/astronomical infrastructure, saying: “These states host strategic sites and military facilities that could promote a clutter of sightings. The puzzling appearance of unfamiliar objects in the sky was admitted publicly by U.S. government officials.”
When adjusted for its large population, Texas emerged as the state with the fewest viewings, with just 215 sightings per million. This is in stark contrast to its neighboring state, New Mexico, which had one of the highest chances of reporting a UFO (801 sightings per million residents).
The lowest proportion of reported UFO sightings was in the South, with Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi combined reporting fewer sightings than Montana.
According to the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, 6,000 UFO encounters are reported every year, though around 98 percent of them are misinterpretations of airplanes or other man-made equipment such as Chinese lanterns.
Loeb also attributed misinterpretations to interference from other countries, saying: “The concentration of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) near nuclear or military assets is a natural byproduct of espionage. Some of the advanced technologies displayed by UAPs are unknown to U.S. corporations and labeled as anomalous just to hide the confusion about their terrestrial origin.
“In that world, the apparent vulnerability of the U.S. to national security threats explains why the Department of Defense would suppress disclosure of related details. Any public admission about the unknown terrestrial origin of UAPs would serve the military interests of adversarial nations who produced them.”
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