What The UFO? Inside The US’s Biggest "Alien" Sighting Database

On the internet, there is a particularly fascinating resource – NUFORC (the National UFO Reporting Center). Over the past five decades, it has aimed to receive, record, corroborate, and document reports from individuals who have claimed to have seen (or been involved in) a UFO-related event.

Since it first popped onto the scene in 1974, over 180,000 reports have been processed. In 1995, NUFORC launched its website to report any occurrences (before then, there was a telephone hotline and the US mail). What’s especially interesting is that NUFORC makes its data publicly available. So naturally, we decided to explore this and investigate what is going on with UFOs in America.  

Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) – or to use the more modern term, unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) – are pretty much what they say on the tin: mysterious objects in the sky that baffle humans.

Sightings of strange things overhead go way back. One of the earliest recorded UFO reports so far was in a fourth century Chinese tome. It claimed that there was a “moon boat” that hovered above the country every 12 years. However, sightings in the United States came into the spotlight in the 1940s and 50s when reports of “aliens”, including an incident near Roswell, New Mexico, sparked people's imagination.  

Whether the UFO is a weather balloon or something more extraterrestrial, NUFORC tries to verify what people are actually seeing.

Common culprits mistaken for UFOs

There are some common misidentified objects that NUFORC regularly hears about, and they encourage people not to report these if seen:  

• Starlink satellites: these often look like a line of lights in the sky that are traveling slowly in a straight line. One way to verify what a person is seeing is to check a Starlink tracker.    
• Rocket launches: depending on where you are located, if you look up and see a spectacular blazing light with a long trail or a strange swirling aura, this could be a man-made vessel that was launched earlier.  
• Venus and Jupiter: anything stationary that is bright and intensely silver may be a planet like Venus or Jupiter.  
• Camera-only sightings: if something shows up on your phone but not in real life, it’s likely a digital artifact or lens glitch.  
• Pulsating lights in videos: another issue with cameras is defocusing and refocusing the camera lens, which can appear as though an object is expanding or contracting.

After a person has sent in a report, NUFORC’s staff will review each report and grade it. Tier 1 is for the most dramatic sightings, while Tier 4 is for those the reviewers feel are explained by human or natural phenomena. As it currently stands, reports that were received prior to March 2023 have not been graded.

What type of reports come in?

When a person makes a report, they need to state when and where it occurred, the shape of the object, a summary, and, if possible, media footage.

The summaries are enlightening and occasionally entertaining (these are quotes from the site, with spelling/grammar preserved):  

“Large cigar shaped ufo was incredibly shocking to see” and “I dont think i was dreaming but i saw two saucers fly towards me from the sky with lights and then an alien appear in my apartment.”

One of the data metrics that people can put into the database is the shape of the UFO that they encounter.

The top UFO shapes (at time of writing): 

• Light: 28,552 reports 
• Circle: 15,332 reports
• Triangles: 13,780 reports

Is there anywhere that UFOs are seen more often?

Yes – according to the data.

In one scientific paper, two geographers and a researcher from the US Department of Defense looked at the data from NUFORC. In total, this was over 98,000 public sightings reported between 2001 and 2020.  

“There are many factors that can contribute to the report of anomalous objects,” said Simon Brewer, associate professor of geography at the University of Utah, in a statement.

“By examining the spatial distribution of reports and how they relate to the local environment, we hope to provide some geographical context that may help resolve or understand reports by both the public and in military settings.”

The researchers looked at each county in the US and analyzed the sky view potential (tree canopy cover, cloud cover, and the area’s light pollution) and the potential for objects to be present in the sky (e.g. close to military bases and airports).

They identified some “hot spots” where the highest number of reports came from. It was found that the western states, including Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, had the most activity. However, California actually had patches of relatively low UFO reports, surrounded by hot spots throughout the state, although the researchers are a bit unsure why.

On the other side of the US, there was another “hot spot” in New England, especially in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

The team also looked at the “cold spots” and found that these were in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

When IFLScience looked at the data on the database (with permission from NUFORC), we found similar results. At the time of data collection (June 20, 2025), these were the top 10 locations in the US based on the number of reports:

1. California: 16,801
2. Florida: 8,656
3. Washington: 7,452
4. Texas: 6,511
5. New York:   6,178
6. Pennsylvania: 5,255
7. Arizona: 5,214
8. Ohio: 4,615
9. Illinois: 4,421
10. North Carolina: 3,829

For ease, we mapped all of this onto one map. The darker the colors indicate a higher number of reports.

Why those places?

According to the researchers, the hot spots are not based on the little green guys deciding to travel in that exact spot. Instead, they think that the “hot spots” are associated with natural spaces and dark skies, normally in the areas that people will naturally be gazing up at the sky.

“The idea is that if you have a chance to see something, then it’s more likely that you’re going to see unexplained phenomena in the sky,” Richard Medina, associate professor of geography at the University of Utah, explained in the statement. “There’s more technology in the sky than ever before so the question is: What are people actually seeing? It’s a tough question to answer, and it is an important one because any uncertainty can be a potential threat to national security.”

Also, some of these spots are closely related to the areas that have a cultural connection to UFOs and military bases.

“The West has a historical relationship to UAP – Area 51 in Nevada, Roswell in New Mexico and here in Utah we have Skinwalker Ranch in the Uinta Basin and military activity in the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground,” said Medina. “Plus, there’s a robust outdoor community that recreates in public lands year-round. People are out and looking skyward.”

The need for UFO reporting

UFO reporting matters. Even if it turns out to be a drone, a misidentified star, or someone’s LED kite, knowing what’s flying around is crucial for national security.

This is why the US Department of Defense changed the name of UFOs to “unidentified anomalous phenomena” or UAPs, to reduce the stigma that may come with reporting any sightings.

But here’s the snag: much of the data is a bit rough. Reports often come with blurry images (sometimes even hand-drawn) and lack key details like precise locations or times.

So, next time you’re staring up at the night sky and see something weird... maybe take a photo, check a satellite tracker, and give NUFORC an email – just don’t blame it on aliens again.