The truth is out there, and the numbers show exactly where.
New data from the National UFO Reporting Center has revealed exactly where you're most likely to see a UFO in the sky.
The analysis examined 149,000 sighting entries from the Reporting Center's database, along with social media reports to determine how many encounters are experienced per capita in each state.
Coming in first, Californians have recorded a staggering 36,286 reported UFO sightings since 1974.
This makes it officially America's alien hotspot with one sighting for every 1,075 residents.
California's clear night skies and dense population have created perfect conditions for UFO sightings.
In fact, just last month, the harrowing call a US Air Force pilot made to air traffic control was released after they described 'three orange-like lights' hovering silently above Los Angeles.
The unknown craft came as close as 10 feet of the pilot's wing, reaching supersonic speeds, as the US Air Force craft was conducting a secret mission over California .
The pilot, who identified as 'Troy 21,' told local air traffic control (ATC) in Los Angeles : 'This is going to sound weird, but I just had something pass underneath my wing, maybe a football-sized object right underneath my wing.'
During the September 17, 2024, incident, ATC can be heard asking Troy 21 if he thought it was a drone, but the stunned pilot couldn't give an answer.
Troy 21 replied that his sensor operator was looking for the UFO on the plane's cameras, adding that it was a 'dark gray cylindrical object' no bigger than a football.
The pilot quickly informed ATC that they had spotted the UFO again about 60 miles from where it first buzzed Troy 21's plane.
Later in the recording, another air traffic controller in Los Angeles could be heard on the radio dismissing the incident, saying that 'there was UFO reported here, but that's all taken care of now. So you don't have to worry about it... it's gone.'
Former FBI agent Ben Hansen told NewsNation the mysterious object must have be traveling at Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound, to get so far away so fast.
The state to come in second in terms of the appearance Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) was Washington.
The Pacific Northwest has long attracted those seeking the unexplained, with Washington recording 7,125 UFO sightings.
That's approximately one for every 1,093 residents.
From 1948 to 1952, as America's production of atomic weapons first ramped up, waves of UFO sightings began cropping up over Washington state's Hanford nuclear production complex, as well as Los Alamos, New Mexico, and other sites for the Manhattan Project.
Meanwhile, Florida was ranked third with more than 11,000 reported encounters.
That's roughly one sighting for every 1,144 Floridians.
As recently as this past December, a flight attendant flying off the coast of the Sunshine State managed to capture a enigmatic round thing floating over the aircraft She was busy with her work, high up over the Bahamas.
On December 23, Cassandra Martin, who works as a flight attendant for the exclusive air service Surjet, was aboard an empty aircraft with two pilots. They received notification from Miami air traffic control about a 'foreign object' while returning to Fort Lauderdale.
The spooky video displayed a round fuzzy patch of white light transitioning into green tones, encircled by a ring of glow.
Placing fourth is Oregon, where there was one reported UFO sighting for every 1,156 inhabitants.
Much like what happened recently in California, several pilots have come forward with reports. noticing strange glows zipping across the heavens over Oregon in December.
An air ambulance pilot reported observing a brilliant beam of light moving swiftly towards his aircraft on the night of December 7. The light suddenly changed direction, making a sharp turn away from them and returning over the Pacific Ocean.
'Coloured red — travelling at incredibly high velocities. I’m not sure how to convey just how quick it was going,' the pilot reported to air-traffic control.
The following evening, a United Airlines pilot similarly observed strange luminous phenomena over the Eugene region.
"We've got three or four targets spotted. They’re moving up and down at different altitudes. This is quite wild," the pilot informed air traffic control, with controllers confirming there was no military action in the vicinity.
The helicopter emergency medical services pilot also observed an illuminated object tracing a 'helical path' as shown on the aircraft’s collision prevention technology.
'You are cleared to maneuver as necessary - left or right to avoid the UFO out there,' an air-traffic controller responded, according to an audio clip of the exchange
Short video clips taken by pilots and crew showed lights in the night sky, but the dark conditions made it difficult to discern specific details.
Meanwhile, New York rounds out the top five with one sighting per 1,301 people.
In November, a mysterious orb-like object was spotted over New York City 's Hudson River in a news broadcast, sparking wild conspiracies.
A dazzling object appeared to zip into view within the frame of the city’s renowned skyline.
The footage, taken from a helicopter, showed a quickly moving sphere of illumination beginning in Hoboken , New Jersey and swooping around toward the World Trade Center where it vanished.
Experts have suggested the 'orb' was either an optical artifact from the helicopter glass in front of the camera or an out-of-focus bird.
But the sighting has led some New Yorkers to question if ' aliens are among us' - as it came less than a week after a Pentagon report that highlighted a a near-miss between a commercial airliner and a mysterious object off the coast of the city.
Harvard physicist, Avi Loeb, wrote that the mysterious orb was created by ' a bright spot from reflection of sunlight as the camera gradually changed its orientation relative to the sun and the ground.
Loeb continued to explain that if the orb was a real object, it would have been moving at the speed of sound, not anything extraordinary.
Those hoping to avoid extraterrestrial encounters should consider staying in Louisiana, where residents experience the fewest UFO encounters nationwide - just one sighting for every 3,815 people.
Even safer is North Dakota, which recorded only 282 total sightings - approximately 0.0004 per capita - making it statistically the state where you are least likely to have an encounter of the third kind.
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