Table of Contents
Analysis of United States UFO Sightings in 2021
We analyzed all 3,411 UFO sighting reports that occurred during 2021 in the USA to identify possible patterns and gain insight into the phenomenon:
- The most commonly reported UFO shape or appearance is "light" (557 reports, 16.33% of total).
- May is the month with the most reported UFO sightings (467 reports, 13.69% of total).
- Friday is the weekday with the most reported UFO sightings (568 reports, 16.65% of total).
- 12/03/21 is the single date with the most UFO sightings reported (67 reports, 1.96% of total).
- Sightings occur more often during the night, between the hours of 20:00 - 23:59 (1,242 reports, 36.41% of total).
United States UFO Sightings By Shape in 2021
This is a standardized set of shapes a UFO report can be filed under.
Shape / Appearance | Sightings | % Of Total |
---|---|---|
Light | 557 reported sightings | 16.33% of all reports |
Circle | 356 reported sightings | 10.44% of all reports |
Other | 219 reported sightings | 6.42% of all reports |
Triangle | 218 reported sightings | 6.39% of all reports |
Sphere | 200 reported sightings | 5.86% of all reports |
Formation | 173 reported sightings | 5.07% of all reports |
Unknown | 171 reported sightings | 5.01% of all reports |
Changing | 129 reported sightings | 3.78% of all reports |
Disk | 129 reported sightings | 3.78% of all reports |
Oval | 127 reported sightings | 3.72% of all reports |
Fireball | 121 reported sightings | 3.55% of all reports |
Cigar | 120 reported sightings | 3.52% of all reports |
Cylinder | 85 reported sightings | 2.49% of all reports |
Rectangle | 77 reported sightings | 2.26% of all reports |
Diamond | 37 reported sightings | 1.08% of all reports |
Flash | 36 reported sightings | 1.06% of all reports |
Chevron | 31 reported sightings | 0.91% of all reports |
Orb | 21 reported sightings | 0.62% of all reports |
Teardrop | 21 reported sightings | 0.62% of all reports |
Egg | 17 reported sightings | 0.50% of all reports |
Cone | 9 reported sightings | 0.26% of all reports |
Star | 8 reported sightings | 0.23% of all reports |
Cross | 8 reported sightings | 0.23% of all reports |
Delta | 4 reported sightings | 0.12% of all reports |
United States UFO Sightings By Month in 2021
This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports made in 2021, grouped by the month the sighting occured in.
Month | Sightings | % Of Total |
---|---|---|
May | 467 reported sightings | 13.69% of all reports |
December | 341 reported sightings | 10.00% of all reports |
January | 296 reported sightings | 8.68% of all reports |
April | 279 reported sightings | 8.18% of all reports |
November | 278 reported sightings | 8.15% of all reports |
October | 265 reported sightings | 7.77% of all reports |
September | 262 reported sightings | 7.68% of all reports |
August | 260 reported sightings | 7.62% of all reports |
March | 250 reported sightings | 7.33% of all reports |
February | 238 reported sightings | 6.98% of all reports |
June | 227 reported sightings | 6.65% of all reports |
July | 214 reported sightings | 6.27% of all reports |
United States UFO Sightings By Weekday in 2021
This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports made in 2021, grouped by the day of the week the sighting occured on.
Weekday | Sightings | % Of Total |
---|---|---|
Friday | 568 reported sightings | 16.65% of all reports |
Saturday | 554 reported sightings | 16.24% of all reports |
Sunday | 507 reported sightings | 14.86% of all reports |
Thursday | 505 reported sightings | 14.81% of all reports |
Wednesday | 447 reported sightings | 13.10% of all reports |
Monday | 407 reported sightings | 11.93% of all reports |
Tuesday | 389 reported sightings | 11.40% of all reports |
United States UFO Sightings By Date in 2021 (Top 5)
This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports made in 2021, grouped by the date the sighting occured on, limited to the top 5 dates with the most sightings.
Date | Sightings | % Of Total |
---|---|---|
12/03/21 | 67 reported sightings | 1.96% of all reports |
05/22/21 | 36 reported sightings | 1.06% of all reports |
12/04/21 | 33 reported sightings | 0.97% of all reports |
05/05/21 | 33 reported sightings | 0.97% of all reports |
05/16/21 | 32 reported sightings | 0.94% of all reports |
United States UFO Sightings By Time in 2021
This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports made in 2021, grouped by the time of day the sighting occured during. We took logical 4 hour windows in order to split the day into early morning, morning, afternoon, evening, night, and late night buckets for this analysis.
Time Of Day | Hours | Sightings | % Of Total |
---|---|---|---|
Night | 20:00 - 23:59 | 1,242 reported sightings | 36.41% of all reports |
Evening | 16:00 - 19:59 | 755 reported sightings | 22.13% of all reports |
Late night | 00:00 - 03:59 | 436 reported sightings | 12.78% of all reports |
Early morning | 04:00 - 07:59 | 377 reported sightings | 11.05% of all reports |
Afternoon | 12:00 - 15:59 | 300 reported sightings | 8.80% of all reports |
Morning | 08:00 - 11:59 | 267 reported sightings | 7.83% of all reports |
States With The Most UFO Sightings in 2021
These are raw UFO sighting report counts per state for the year 2021.
Rank | State | Number of UFO Sightings |
---|---|---|
1 | California | 355 UFO Reports |
2 | Florida | 233 UFO Reports |
3 | New York | 203 UFO Reports |
4 | Washington | 200 UFO Reports |
5 | Pennsylvania | 146 UFO Reports |
6 | Texas | 145 UFO Reports |
7 | Arizona | 134 UFO Reports |
8 | Colorado | 130 UFO Reports |
9 | Ohio | 107 UFO Reports |
10 | North Carolina | 101 UFO Reports |
11 | Oregon | 97 UFO Reports |
12 | Indiana | 93 UFO Reports |
13 | Missouri | 81 UFO Reports |
14 | Georgia | 80 UFO Reports |
15 | Connecticut | 78 UFO Reports |
16 | New Jersey | 78 UFO Reports |
17 | Illinois | 77 UFO Reports |
18 | Massachusetts | 74 UFO Reports |
19 | Virginia | 69 UFO Reports |
20 | Michigan | 65 UFO Reports |
21 | Idaho | 59 UFO Reports |
22 | Tennessee | 54 UFO Reports |
23 | New Mexico | 50 UFO Reports |
24 | Kentucky | 48 UFO Reports |
25 | Minnesota | 47 UFO Reports |
26 | Arkansas | 46 UFO Reports |
27 | South Carolina | 45 UFO Reports |
28 | Maryland | 41 UFO Reports |
29 | Wisconsin | 40 UFO Reports |
30 | Utah | 39 UFO Reports |
31 | Nevada | 37 UFO Reports |
32 | Oklahoma | 34 UFO Reports |
33 | Maine | 32 UFO Reports |
34 | New Hampshire | 31 UFO Reports |
35 | Iowa | 26 UFO Reports |
36 | Kansas | 26 UFO Reports |
37 | Louisiana | 22 UFO Reports |
38 | Alabama | 21 UFO Reports |
39 | West Virginia | 19 UFO Reports |
40 | Vermont | 18 UFO Reports |
41 | Mississippi | 17 UFO Reports |
42 | Rhode Island | 15 UFO Reports |
43 | Nebraska | 14 UFO Reports |
44 | Delaware | 9 UFO Reports |
45 | Hawaii | 9 UFO Reports |
46 | North Dakota | 9 UFO Reports |
47 | South Dakota | 7 UFO Reports |
48 | Montana | 7 UFO Reports |
49 | Alaska | 5 UFO Reports |
50 | Wyoming | 4 UFO Reports |
States With The Most UFO Sightings Per Capita in 2021
These are the per capita UFO sighting report statistics per state for the year 2021.
These per capita amounts were calculated as follows: we took the number of reports made in 2021 for each state, divided by the state's population for 2021, and finally multiplied by 100,000 to get the "per 100k" measurement for each state in 2021.
Rank | State | Reports Per 100,000 Residents |
---|---|---|
1 | Idaho | 3.21 |
2 | Vermont | 2.8 |
3 | Washington | 2.6 |
4 | New Mexico | 2.36 |
5 | Maine | 2.35 |
6 | Oregon | 2.29 |
7 | Colorado | 2.25 |
8 | New Hampshire | 2.25 |
9 | Connecticut | 2.16 |
10 | Arizona | 1.87 |
11 | Arkansas | 1.53 |
12 | Indiana | 1.37 |
13 | Rhode Island | 1.37 |
14 | Missouri | 1.32 |
15 | Utah | 1.19 |
16 | Nevada | 1.19 |
17 | North Dakota | 1.16 |
18 | Pennsylvania | 1.12 |
19 | Florida | 1.08 |
20 | Kentucky | 1.07 |
21 | West Virginia | 1.06 |
22 | Massachusetts | 1.05 |
23 | New York | 1 |
24 | North Carolina | 0.97 |
25 | Ohio | 0.91 |
26 | Delaware | 0.91 |
27 | California | 0.9 |
28 | South Carolina | 0.88 |
29 | Kansas | 0.88 |
30 | Oklahoma | 0.86 |
31 | New Jersey | 0.84 |
32 | Minnesota | 0.82 |
33 | Iowa | 0.81 |
34 | Virginia | 0.8 |
35 | South Dakota | 0.79 |
36 | Tennessee | 0.78 |
37 | Georgia | 0.75 |
38 | Nebraska | 0.71 |
39 | Wyoming | 0.69 |
40 | Wisconsin | 0.68 |
41 | Alaska | 0.68 |
42 | Maryland | 0.66 |
43 | Michigan | 0.65 |
44 | Montana | 0.65 |
45 | Hawaii | 0.62 |
46 | Illinois | 0.6 |
47 | Mississippi | 0.57 |
48 | Texas | 0.5 |
49 | Louisiana | 0.47 |
50 | Alabama | 0.42 |
Other years with Reported UFO Sightings in the USA
These are running counts of how many UFO sighting reports are filed per year in the USA.
United States UFO Sighting Reports in 2021
This is a sample of 20 UFO reports filed in 2021, presented exactly as they were made other than some paragraph breaks added to improve readability.
Click the Report link to view any associated pictures submitted with the report to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC).
Full Report Text:
Multiple spheres of light slowly zigzagging upwards until they faded away. I was cruising back to my house New Year's Eve night with a friend of mine just before midnight when my friend said what the heck is that. I looked up and saw multiple spheres of light slowly zigzagging upwards.
I pulled over and started recording the video which I attached to this report.
Full Report Text:
A small cluster of bright blue lights shot upward from the horizon A bright blue light shot upward from the horizon at about 11:45 pm on 12/31/21. It kept going upward in a straight line and suddenly stopped. It took a sharp left turn and continued at a high rate of speed.
When it stopped in an opening in some high thin clouds it remained there for a while. It was very high up. Then it started darting in short spurts in all directions.
East and back. North and back. Etc.
After about 15 minutes it sped back toward the direction it came from and stopped. Then turned down and sped downward until it was out of sight at my horizon line. There was a buzzing electrical sound throughout.
All told it lasted about 15-20 minutes.
Full Report Text:
We thought it was fireworks but no sound and it moved oddly, was a fiery orange ball and then sort of burned out. We were outside on my porch and I was facing my friends. I thought I saw a firework but there was no sound at all, and I realized no, it wasn’t a firework.
I said “what’s that?!” And my 3 friends turned around and all said “…I don’t know?!” And we watched as it streaked through the sky, fiery and orange and eventually trailed off and appeared to burn out. It was fast, but all 4 of us knew we had seen a UFO. The shape, the color, the lack of sound and the movement of it were all really strange.
Full Report Text:
Photographs reveal UAP During a New Year’s Eve family gathering both my wife Jeannette and I took pictures of the three stars that make up Orion’s belt because the night was very clear. The next day, while examining the photos, we noticed the strange object appearing on both pictures. There were lights and various colors on the object.
At the time, we didn't notice that the object was even there, therefore we didn't detect any type of motion. IMG_3765 was taken by my wife, while IMG_8282 was taken by me.
Full Report Text:
I got a picture of what is either 1 craft in triangle shape or 3 small ones forming a triangle Not the 1st time either. Not sure all dates but will post all pics of different dates aroundy yard in Alvin TX.
Full Report Text:
I'm a pilot and what I saw did not resemble an aircraft. 4 red lights. Might have been a single "aircraft" might have been 4 separate.
Moving west to east. Apparent altitude above ground @5,000 ft. Apparent shape diamond.
Very close together. Lights were steady red. Moving as a single aircraft".
Lights were south of my location @5 miles. I didn't not see an object, only the lights.
Full Report Text:
I think it’s a ufo I sent a video I also saw this in different location on year 2020 several of them.
Full Report Text:
Orange light changing to white moving slowly without a sound. It was New Years Eve at 9:50pm and I was going outside to my garage,I was approaching the side door to enter and I looked to my right south west and saw an orange light moving towards me.I thought it odd because of the color and it didn't have any marker lights like aircraft do (red and green) blinking so at that point I thought to take out my cell phone and take a picture of it.
I had seen this orange light before and just watched it go across the sky and wished I taken a picture of it.Well this time I snapped pictures to show my wife who was in the house.I took some photos as it moved by me above the trees and I stopped when the object stopped moving in front of me because my flash was on and I felt a very uneasy feeling like it saw me.
I don't mind saying I became concerned as I felt a fear for my safety at this time.I stared it it hovering there for about one minute and it shot straight up into the overcast.The object was moving from the southwest to the northeast and it not make any noise at all,I found this very creepy to say the least.
Just after this encounter I turned around and went into my house because I was feeling a bit afraid and wanted to tell my wife what had just happened to me.I came into the my house and said to my wife I just saw a object in the sky and it was a strange color,then went on to say I took some pictures of it. I took out my phone and said here take a look and she said was it a UFO joking with me.
She looked at the pictures and said that is odd and said did you enlarge the pictures and said no.We call her the cropping queen because she always crops her pictures.I went on to to do exactly that and when I zoomed in on the pictures I was shocked at the detail that was in the pictures,I'm not sure what to do with these pictures because they are not some type fake or photo shop B.
S. like you see on line.I went on line and can't find anything close to what I have on my phone.
I would take a lie detector test to prove I that my story is real and photos are the real deal,they offer some very interesting details that I can not explain.
Full Report Text:
Lights and loud sound At first I thought there was a helicopter trying land on my apartment it was so loud, my ears began to ring so I quickly went to look out my window and saw a ring of lights around my apartment. I ran to grab my phone to record what I was experiencing and everything stopped suddenly. Suddenly there are cars driving by and people walking outside.
It’s almost as if they were gone while this was happening and when it stopped everything went back to “normal”.
Full Report Text:
Oval looking light Saucer shaped craft. Very bright. Observed from the highway.
Full Report Text:
I saw a geometric orb that changed into what looked like a pumice stone It was early, I was having my coffee on the porch and I see a light that changes in intensity. I grabbed my phone and recorded a little bit of it. It seems to go from small to larger and changes shape.
It looked like a smaller light came from it. It finally stopped moving and I took a picture of it. It looked like it had alot holes in it almost rock-like.
I went back in the house and do not know when it left.
Full Report Text:
Round, glowing, key lime green orb flew from southern sky to northern sky.
Full Report Text:
Three silent orange blinking lights in triangle formation. My husband and I formally from Washington state, we’re fishing at the Indian town bridge in Jupiter Florida. I looked up in the sky and noticed three warm/orange lights.
They were in a perfect triangle formation. They were blinking on and off, and we’re sweeping eerily across the sky in unison without a sound. Completely silent in their movement.
No sound of any motor, or buzzing. Just silent like the stars. The lights appeared to be a lot closer then the airplanes around the area, but way too far away and bright to be a drone.
The movement of the lights were too synchronized to be drones. The moment I noticed them, I pointed it out to my husband and another fellow fisherman, who was fishing near us. We all saw the same thing.
The moment we all saw the lights they started to get very dim. Until you could only see two of the lights. The third bottom light making the bottom of the triangle completely disappeared by the time I tried to take any footage or photos.
The triangle formation disappeared before they went behind the bridge. I ran across the street to see if I could see it past the bridge, in the direction it was going, and it was completely gone, like it had never been in the sky.
Full Report Text:
Blue green orb fly bye Sitting in our car at Winnebago corners at red light when a blue green orb flew right passed us.it was going west to east along the highway only a few hundred feet in the air.cruising at a pretty speed.
Full Report Text:
While driving the low angle of the sun in the evening was reflecting light off an odd shaped fairly stationary object in the sky. While driving the low angle of the sun in the evening was reflecting light off an odd shaped fairly stationary or descending object in the sky.
Full Report Text:
I was shooting multiple shots of the sunset, last night I was scanning through them and saw an anomaly go up,down, and up again. After spotting the anomaly in 8 pix I blew up the photos, revealing groups of lights. Thought maybe a 2 stage missile, but the arrangement of the light spots did not look like any missile motor nozzle arrangement.
And there were no contrails. The anomaly just showed up and disappeared over 2 minutes. So examining the close up of the anomaly, there are a few frames that the light arrangement looks different.
The anomaly showed up in the photo, went up vertically , maybe 15-20 miles offshore, then back down, then up again and a couple of zig zags and disappeared. I have seen Vandenburg's launches, and this was different. Backlit, I would have seen a ship or sub launch, and this would have been a Large Rocket, so sub, ship or platform was not possible.
No aircraft in the sky, and I dont know of any aircraft dropping 2 stage missiles. It was a UFO. I did not notice it live, but 2 days later scanning through photos.
(Our sunsets are very pretty, so when it is clear I am shooting.). After blowing up the anomaly it does not look man made.
The pictures were taken with a Samsung S7+ tablet, on an open hillside on our property. Not through a window. This was not a flare or reflection.
The video is me shuttling through the 8 pictures, back and forth. I have never witnessed a UFO previously, I have seen rockets and high altitude balloons, this was neither. Pix taken 39.
185203552246094, -123.75308227539062 I have a video sequence of the pictures there are 8.
Full Report Text:
I saw two different (or changing) objects about two minutes apart but in the same approximate location. I went outside to photograph a growing plume of smoke from the nearby fire using my iPhone 11. I took a photo and went inside to show my husband and when enlarging the photo saw the first shape.
I then went outside to see if I could see it again and in roughly the same location, was a different shaped object. Neither object appeared to move though it was extremely windy. The photos illustrate the shape and color of the objects taken two minutes apart.
Photos below include the original photo followed by an enlargement of the photo, for both objects.
Full Report Text:
MADAR Node 57 .
Full Report Text:
I think it was following me from Denali There is a water spot where people get water .we parked the car and I look up and it's there kinda scary I hope it didn't follow me. It looks like a ball of light moving around the sky .
Full Report Text:
3 of us looking upward at clear night sky and we watch a large triangular shaped, relatively slow moving object for approximately 2 min UFO Event Details: ((name deleted)) ((address deleted)) Road Englewood, FL 34224 Cell: 603-209-0002 Quantity: Single Craft Angle of view: approximately 65% Myself, my wife, and a friend were enjoying a chat on the back terrace on December 29th at 9:35pm, while leaning back in our Adirondack chairs and gazing upward at the clear night sky and a full array of stars, when our friend took notice of something moving cross the sky almost perpendicular to our viewing point. She directed our attention to it and asked "is that a satellite?" An initial visual assessment quickly determined that it was not a satellite (the craft had two yellowish-white disks; presumably the drives glowing on the rear), nor was it a civilian or commercial aircraft (no running lights of any type). While we were so focused on watching this extraordinary event, I gave no thought to imaging it until it was quite a distance past us, and then took a still image vs a video… Shape (see attached rendering and also images of spacecraft models found online, which generally depict similar shape, texture, and locations of the drives): Triangular; with a ratio of what appeared to be a length of approximately 1.
2 times to that of its width (ration of 1W:1.2L). The height of the craft appeared to be tapered from taller at back to a shorter front.
Similar height across the width at any particular cross section. Best estimate for the height at the back is that it was approximately 1/5 of the back’s width. The crafts underside had no visible lighting attached or providing illumination; however, the underside did appear as a medium gray and was visible to view because of what I believe to be refracted artificial night lighting from the populated area below.
We were able to discern that the underside appeared to have a textured surface (I hesitate to make reference to fictional materials, but the texture looked similar to the appearance of external surfaces on the Star Wars type crafts). Size was difficult to determine (I would estimate that the crafts length when overhead was approximately the size of my thumb and forefinger spaced with a 1/2” separation and held at arm’s length), but the “feel” or perception was that it was large and that the clarity of the details we observed relating to the craft were not as a result of it being at close distance (low altitude), but rather because of its voluminous size. It had a presence in that manner.
There were no observable sounds that we could associate with the craft (noise pollution in our vicinity was minimal). The two yellowish white discs on the back of the craft (assumed to be the means of propulsion), showed no evidence of flame or other substance “tailing” from the openings. Their margins were clear and crisp.
The images show the color to be more yellow in comparison to what we saw, which was more white with a yellowish cast. The crafts course was approximately due north to south (there were no shifts in direction), maintained a consistent relatively slow speed (the duration from when the object was sight overhead to when it was lost to view on the horizon was approximately 2 minutes, during which time we never lost visibility). Altitude was difficult to ascertain (as stated above), however a best guess would have placed it above 10K ft and as high as possibly a low orbit as I was able to compare the height of the craft to a commercial airliner flying perpendicular to the craft and down the coast on approach to what I suspect was RSW airport in Ft Myers 40+ miles away (see attached, which captures both craft in the same image).
I would bet the pilots saw this object as well on their radar (if it was within the range of the equipment) and probably with their eyes, as it crossed ahead of them and they were closer (at least my perspective) to it than we were. As a point of comparison, the aircraft is visible only in the image because of its running lights, which create a wavering line in the image due to cameras lengthened exposure setting, while the craft is visible not only by the two parallel orange elliptical rings which identify the spacing of the two drives at the back, but also the nose and left-side edge of the craft which remains just-visible and still easy to see in the image. The craft is at a further distance than the airliner based on our position.
My guess is that (using the image as a basis for perspective and with the understanding of the airlines typical flight path down the coast) the airliner was approximately 3-4 miles away from us and the craft was at least several times farther (if not significantly more) than that. In summary, I am a 59yo male, who has never filed a UFO report nor have I experienced anything prior that is similar to this occurrence. I am not a conspiracy theorist and although I believe in the possibility for other life in this universe outside of what we create on Earth, I do not have any predisposition to believing aliens are flying over our heads and walking among us.
My daily life is that of a flooring inspector, who observes and gathers data relating to said failures and assesses their causes. While this is not my area of expertise, I believe that my prowess for making relative observation and gathering supporting data is of good quality and has been detailed above as accurately as possible. My wife and friend concur with these details and are also professionals, who have never seen or filed a report relating to this type of experience.
I would appreciate a response as to what additional information can be found relating to this event. Attached Images: Original image capture Original image with details CG illustration of approximate shape and location of drives Images of models found online depicting similar shape texture, and drives.