Washington Named UFO Capital

If you want to see a UFO, your best bet is to travel to the Pacific Northwest and stargaze for a while. In a new study published by the pollsters at journoresearch.org, the Evergreen State has been crowned the UFO Sighting Capital of the United States. The analysts obtained data from the National UFO Reporting Center between January 2000 and December 2021.

According to the site, Washington averaged around 88.03 UFO sightings per 100,000 residents. A significant amount of the Pacific Northwest states also happened to make the list, with Montana finishing third (86.21 sightings per 100,000 residents), Oregon finishing seventh (80.13), and Idaho finishing ninth (67.13).

Coincidentally enough, a handful of states on the completely opposite side of the country made the list as well. Vermont came in a close second on the list with 87.98 UFO sightings per 100,000 residents. Maine (81.55),  and New Hampshire (80.13, sixth place) were the other two New England states on the list. The Top 10 was then rounded out with #4 Alaska (83.94), #8 New Mexico (73.96), and #10 Wyoming (66.86).

The site says California had the most UFO sightings on the list by a large margin with 15,280, but when factoring sightings per capita, the Golden State averaged just 38.94 sightings per 100,000 residents.

"Washington is home to what is often regarded as the first UFO sighting of the modern age, which marked its 75th anniversary in June this year," journoresearch.org said in a press release (via KOMO). "On (June 24, 1947), pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed to have seen a string of nine shiny objects flying past Mount Rainier at impossibly high speeds during his flight from Chehalis to Yakima, Washington."

UFO sightings have grown increasingly less taboo, with the House of Representatives approving the budget for a new reporting system earlier this month, helping officials track the sightings of UAP, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.

"We must ensure the military and intelligence community are armed with the best possible information, capital, and scientific resources to defeat our enemies and maintain military and technology superiority," Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) said in a statement about the funding.

He continued, "This amendment will play an important role in furthering Congress' ability to fact gather and further prove or disprove the origin and threat nature of whatever seems to be flying in our skies."