Cities With the Highest Frequency of UFO Sightings

08/06/2020

The War of the Worlds. The Day the Earth Stood Still. Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The X-Files. Pop culture has always had a relentless fascination with the idea of visitors from another world. However, this fascination has not been limited to the flying saucers of fiction: People from around the world have been claiming that they’ve experienced real UFO sightings for thousands of years. From the second millennium B.C. in ancient Egypt to the infamous 1947 Roswell, New Mexico, incident, there have been countless examples recorded throughout history.

Our TruePeopleSearch Insights team have conducted an in-depth analysis of the National UFO Reporting Center’s database of more than 80,000 unidentified flying object reports dating between 1910 and 2014 in the United States and Canada.

There’s no way for us to definitively separate the hoaxes from the “real” UFO sightings, but it’s our theory that a higher frequency of sightings correlates with a higher percentage of reports from people who believe they have genuinely seen something in the sky that they cannot explain: a UFO.

See below for the results of our study and UFO sightings map.

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Cities With the Highest Frequency of UFO Sightings

The Top 10 Cities by UFO Sightings per 100,000 People

The city with the most UFO sightings per 100,000 people in North America is Gila Bend, Arizona. The tiny historic town boasts only about 2,000 permanent residents but has an unusually high amount of UFO reports: 1,193.89 UFO sightings for every 100,000 residents.

Rank City State Country Sightings/100K People
1 Gila Bend AZ US 1,193.89
2 Houston BC CA 902.11
3 Surfside Beach SC US 671.44
4 Sedona AZ US 667.63
5 Sonora CA US 554.42
6 Myrtle Beach SC US 507.26
7 Cumming GA US 486.2
8 Ocean City MD US 389.78
9 North Myrtle Beach SC US 380.14
10 Lincoln City OR US 354.85

What Is a UFO?

A UFO, or Unidentified Flying Object, is defined as an airborne anomaly that the observer is unable to explain or immediately identify. Most unexplained aerial phenomena are identified upon investigation with common explanations such as airplanes, weather balloons, and meteors. UFOs and extraterrestrials are not synonymous, but the term is most commonly used in relation to suspected spaceship and alien sightings.

Which State Has the Most UFO Sightings?

The state with the most UFO sightings overall is California, with 10,450 reported sightings from 1910 to 2014. To put that into perspective, that is an average of approximately 0.28 UFO sightings daily. Second place is Washington with a total of 4,653 sightings.

What Are the Most Commonly Sighted UFO Types?

The most commonly reported UFO type is an unexplained light in the sky. Lights have been reported to move in weird patterns, flash, appear and disappear, display in a formation, and more. While some lights can be explained as an aircraft originating from Earth, a meteor, or satellites, some reports have remained shrouded in mystery.

Among the other most reported UFO types are triangles, circles, fireballs, disks, sphere, snake-like UFOs (cigars and cylinders), chevrons, eggs, and cones.

Here is a complete breakdown of all reported sightings in North America by UFO shape:

UFO Shape Number of Sightings
Light 16,498
Triangle 7,913
Circle 7,603
Fireball 6,104
Disk 5,393
Sphere 5,252
Oval 3,753
Formation 2,433
Cigar 2,031
Changing 1,971
Flash 1,362
Rectangle 1,304
Cylinder 1,277
Diamond 1,178
Chevron 959
Egg 743
Teardrop 727
Cone 316
Cross 240
Other shape 5,695
Unknown shape 8,604
Total 81,356

UFO Sightings in the 25 Most Populous Cities in North America

Since our analysis largely identified the small towns and hamlets with a mysteriously high rate of UFO encounters, we decided to see how those compared to the biggest cities in North America. We were surprised to find that Seattle, Washington, is a bona fide UFO sightings hotspot, with more than 83 sightings per 100,000 people, more than double any other major city. Here is how the rest of the top 25 most populous cities in the United States and Canada stack up:

Rank City State Country Sightings Population Sightings/100K People
1 Seattle WA US 620 744,955 83.23
2 Phoenix AZ US 496 1,660,000 29.88
3 San Diego CA US 382 1,426,000 26.79
4 San Francisco CA US 220 883,305 24.91
5 Austin TX US 227 964,254 23.54
6 Columbus OH US 190 892,533 21.29
7 San Jose CA US 199 1,030,000 19.32
8 Indianapolis IN US 154 876,862 17.56
9 Charlotte NC US 153 872,498 17.54
10 Jacksonville FL US 152 903,889 16.82
11 Houston TX US 325 2,326,000 13.97
12 San Antonio TX US 196 1,493,000 13.13
13 Dallas TX US 165 1,345,000 12.27
14 Chicago IL US 323 2,706,000 11.94
15 Winnipeg MB CA 78 749,534 10.41
16 Los Angeles CA US 397 3,990,000 9.95
17 Fort Worth TX US 86 895,008 9.61
18 Ottawa ON CA 92 994,837 9.25
19 Philadelphia PA US 121 1,584,000 7.64
20 New York City NY US 601 8,399,000 7.16
21 Edmonton AB CA 64 981,280 6.52
22 Toronto ON CA 186 2,930,000 6.35
23 Calgary AB CA 83 1,336,000 6.21
24 Mississauga ON CA 45 828,854 5.43
25 Montreal QC CA 81 1,780,000 4.55

If you think you’ve seen a UFO or have had a UFO encounter, contact the National UFO Reporting Center via their hotline, online form, or mail. The organization has been recording UFO sightings daily since 1974. You can also see the most recent UFO sightings’ reports.

 

Note: Our analysis only included cities with 25 or more total reported sightings from 1910-2014.

Please remember we all have different opinions, Think Before You Speak or Write Something that is cruel to Others. After all, We are only Humans. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes. To share your experiences or just leave a comment there is a area below. Read or listen. We are the change the world has been waiting for! Have you witnessed an unidentified flying object? You are not alone. Whether you think UFOs are black projects, extraterrestrial craft, something else altogether, or just don’t know, again: you are not alone! Unconditional love. The road we all get to walk.

Unconditional love is like the sun.

WE ARE THE DISCLOSURE !!! ~~~ WE HAVE NEVER BEEN ALONE!
Love and Regards,
Happy Quarantine !

Thank You,

Nancy Thames : )

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