State / Province UFO Sightings Counts

As of March 2006 .. Return to: *U* UFO Home Statistics Menu [ Site Map ]

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Dry as dust for most people, UFO statistics may still hide a few surprises.
The data below is a breakdown of some 12,140 UFO sightings for the states of
the USA, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Canadian provinces.
France and Britain (UK) / Ireland are included for comparison.
All combined, this is 67% of the UFO sightings listed in the *U* Database.

Please feel free to link to this page directly, but its entire contents are
strictly copyright © 2006 Larry Hatch
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For the USA, 2 letter abbreviations are the same as used by the postal service.
e.g. WI = Wisconsin PR = Puerto Rico and DC = District of Columbia (Washington, DC).
Some place names are spelled out to avoid confusion.

Canadian provinces and territories are abbreviated as:
YKN = Yukon Territory. NWT = Northwest Territories (includes Nunavut)
NFL = Newfoundland (includes Labrador) BC = British Columbia
AB = Alberta SSK = Saskatchewan MBA = Manitoba ON = Ontario
QB = Quebec NBr = New Brunswick NS = Nova Scotia
PEI = Prince Edward Island. All are suffixed CAN for Canada.

Britain and Ireland are lumped together as UK / IRL.
France is just simply France.

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Table 1: UFO SIGHTINGS RAW COUNTS for all dates.

Rank Name

# 1 France
# 2 UK / IRL
# 3 CA , USA
# 4 TX , USA
# 5 OH , USA

# 6 FL , USA
# 7 PA , USA
# 8 NY , USA
# 9 WA , USA
#10 MA , USA

#11 NM , USA
#12 IN , USA
#13 IL , USA
#14 MI , USA
#15 ON , CAN

#16 OR , USA
#17 MO , USA
#18 NC , USA
#19 AZ , USA
#20 WI , USA

#21 GA , USA
#22 NJ , USA

Count

2247
1191
960
347
338

332
330
322
299
282

259
258
240
210
196

185
183
175
173
160

157
155

Rank Name

#23 AB , CAN
#24 CO , USA
#25 VA , USA
#26 UT , USA
#27 BC , CAN

#28 MN , USA
#29 WV , USA
#30 CT , USA
#31 QB , CAN
#32 OK , USA

#33 TN , USA
#34 MT , USA
#35 KS , USA
#36 MD , USA
#37 AL , USA

#38 LA , USA
#39 ND , USA
#40 IA , USA
#41 NH , USA
#42 ID , USA

#43 KY , USA
#44 NV , USA

Count

149
148
138
132
121

120
107
105
105
103

98
93
92
91
85

82
82
81
81
79

79
79

Rank Name

#45 PR , USA
#46 SC , USA
#47 ME , USA
#48 AR , USA
#49 NE , USA

#50 AK , USA
#51 MS , USA
#52 SD , USA
#53 WY , USA
#54 NS , CAN

#55 MBA, CAN
#56 NFL, CAN
#57 DC , USA
#58 RI , USA
#59 HI , USA

#60 SSK, CAN
#61 VT , USA
#62 DE , USA
#63 NBr, CAN
#64 NWT, CAN

#65 YKN, CAN
#66 PEI, CAN

Count

78
75
74
73
66

64
64
55
52
36

35
35
32
30
29

29
28
19
14
13

13
9

Combined as nations, we have USA: 7999, France: 2247, UK / URL 1191, Canada: 683
Borderline and offshore events cause small disagreements in totals.

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Table 2: 20 HIGHEST Sightings Counts per UNIT AREA

Area is in Square Miles. "Ratio" is sightings per 1000 square miles area.

Rank : Region

# 1 Washington, DC
# 2 MA , USA
# 3 RI , USA
# 4 Puerto Rico
# 5 CT , USA

# 6 NJ , USA
# 7 UK & Ireland
# 8 DE , USA
# 9 NH , USA
#10 MD , USA

#11 OH , USA
#12 IN , USA
#13 PA , USA
#14 France
#15 NY , USA

#16 CA , USA
#17 FL , USA
#18 HI , USA
#19 WV , USA
#20 WA , USA

Counts

32
282
30
78
105

155
1162
19
81
91

338
258
330
2247
322

960
332
29
107
299

Area

69
8264
1212
3492
5018

7787
94226
2045
9279
10460

41330
35185
45308
330668
48108

158706
58664
6471
24232
68139

Ratio:

463.768
34. 124
24.752
22.336
20.925

19.905
12.332
9.291
8.729
8.700

8.178
7.333
7.283
6.795
6.557

6.049
5.659
4.482
4.416
4.388

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Table 3: 20 LOWEST Sightings Counts per UNIT AREA

Area is in Square Miles. "Ratio" is Counts per 1000 square miles area.

Rank : Region

# 1 NWT, CAN
# 2 YKN , CAN
# 3 AK , USA
# 4 SSK , CAN
# 5 MBA , CAN

# 6 QB , CAN
# 7 NFL , CAN
# 8 BC , CAN
# 9 ON , CAN
#10 NBr, CAN

#11 WY , USA
#12 ALTa, CAN
#13 MT , USA
#14 SD , USA
#15 NV , USA

#16 NE , USA
#17 ID , USA
#18 ND , USA
#19 KS , USA
#20 TX , USA

Counts

13
13
64
29
35

105
35
121
196
14

52
149
93
55
79

66
79
82
92
347

Area

1,322,909
186,661
591,000
251,866
250,947

594,860
156,949
365,947
412,581
28,355

97,809
255,287
147,046
77,116
110,561

77,355
83,564
77,072
82,277
266,807

Ratio:

0.0098
0.0696
0.1083
0.1151
0.1395

0.1765
0.2230
0.3307
0.4751
0.4937

0.5317
0.5837
0.6324
0.7132
0.7145

0.8532
0.9454
1.0639
1.1182
1.3006

As expected, vast sparsely populated areas top this list.

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Table 4: 20 HIGHEST Sightings Counts per 1000 Population

Population figures are from various sources, 1985-1995 estimates.
"Ratio" is Counts per 1000 population based on these ever changing figures.

Rank : Region

# 1 YKN , CAN
# 2 NWT , CAN
# 3 NM , USA
# 4 ND , USA
# 5 MT , USA

# 6 WY , USA
# 7 AK , USA
# 8 SD , USA
# 9 ID , USA
#10 NH , USA

#11 UT , USA
#12 PEI, CAN
#13 OR , USA
#14 NFL , CAN
#15 Maine , USA

#16 NV , USA
#17 WV , USA
#18 Alta , CAN
#19 WA , USA
#20 Washington, DC

Counts

13
13
259
82
93

52
64
55
79
81

132
9
185
35
74

79
107
149
299
32

Population

27,800
57,600
1,581,200
635,900
823,700

466,200
586,500
711,200
1,067,200
1,110,800

1,813,100
129,700
2,977,300
568,400
1,235,400

1,327,400
1,812,200
2,545,500
5,135,700
588,600

Ratio:

0.4676
0.2257
==> 0.1638
0.1289
0.1129

0.1115
0.1091
0.0773
0.0740
0.0729

0.0728
0.0694
0.0621
0.0616
0.0599

0.0595
0.0590
0.0585
0.0582
0.0544

Most New Mexico sightings were in the late 1940s to the 1950s.
Given 1950 census figures for NM population (533,242) that state
would rank three times higher in Sightings per 1000 population.

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Table 5: 20 LOWEST Sightings Counts per 1000 Population

Population figures are from various sources, 1985-1995 estimates.
"Ratio" is Counts per 1000 population based on these ever changing figures.

Rank : Region

# 1 Quebec, CAN
# 2 New York, USA
# 3 MD , USA
# 4 LA , USA
# 5 NBr , CAN

# 6 Ontario, CAN
# 7 TN, USA
# 8 TX, USA
# 9 NJ , USA
#10 UK / Ireland

#11 AL , USA
#12 IL , USA
#13 SC , USA
#14 KY , USA
#15 VA , USA

#16 Puerto Rico
#17 Michigan , USA
#18 GA , USA
#19 MS , USA
#20 FL , USA

Counts

105
322
91
82
14

196
98
347
155
1162

85
240
75
79
138

78
210
157
64
332

Population

6,896,000
18,119,400
4,908,400
4.287,200
723,900

10,084,800
5,024,000
17,765,600
7,789,100
57,797,800

4,135,500
11,631,100
3,603,200
3,754,700
6,377,100

3,580,200
9,436,600
6,751,400
2,614,300
13,487,600

Ratio:

0.0152
==> 0.0178
0.0185
0.0191
0.0193

0.0194
0.0195
0.0195
0.0199
0.0201

0.0205
0.0206
0.0208
0.0210
0.0216

0.0218
0.0222
0.0232
0.0245
0.0246

Of all US states, New York has the lowest ratio of sightings per 1000 population ( 0.0178 )
while New Mexico has the highest ( 0.1638 ) . . a disparity of over nine-to-one.

If 1950 census figures were used, the disparity would more than double . . over 22 to 1.
Contrary to easy assumptions, UFO sightings are not always a function population density.

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Names and numbers were tediously entered by hand, so errors are bound to creep in.
Please email if you see any bad figures or typos, I will fix them. Larry Hatch
_______________________________________________________________________

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