GettyImages/ David Wall
California leads the states in most reported UFO sightings, according to the National UFO Reporting Center.
The center, which is not a government agency, has a database of UFO reports that is sorted by date, state, shape and date reported – including a sighting by Thomas Jefferson.
The site, which has been in operation for 47 years, is dedicated to the collection and dissemination of objective UFO data and houses more than 150,000 reports, some with accompanying images.
Among the U.S. states, California comes in at the top with 15,280 reported sightings, perhaps a result of its large population. But Florida comes in second in UFO spotting with about half of the sightings (7,685) reported in the Golden State, and Texas, which is the second most populous state, has only 5,728 reports.
Washington has logged more UFO reports per capita than any other state in the U.S., according to Axios.
All reports from international sources total 10,365.
The site, which has been in operation for 47 years, is dedicated to the collection and dissemination of objective UFO data and houses more than 150,000 reports. A form is available for reporting a UFO, but it asks users not to report Starlink satellites, Venus sightings or jokes.
“The National UFO Reporting Center makes no claims as to the validity of the information in any of these reports. Obvious hoaxes have been omitted, however most reports have been posted exactly as received in the author’s own words,” the site says.
In May, the House Intelligence Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation subcommittee held a hearing on what lawmakers called unidentified aerial phenomena. They discussed a 2021 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding 144 incidents studied by the Pentagon’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. During the hearing, lawmakers witnessed select videos of UAPs from various times and places that—while under investigation—are currently unexplainable.