Since 1974, the Empire State has recorded 8,314 UFO sightings, or 1 UFO sighting for every 1,003 residents. Delaware tops the list.New York has reportedly moved up two spots to rank third among the U.S. states most likely to experience alien abductions. Casino.ca Annual Ranking Published in observance of National Alien Abduction Day, March 20. Gambling Guide compiled this list by sifting through 150,000 sighting entries. National UFO Reporting Center Covering the period 1974 to 2026, sighting details are cross-referenced with social media data to calculate UFO sightings per capita for all 50 states. The list comes amid renewed public interest in UFOs and extraterrestrial life, weeks after President Donald Trump Days ago, U.S. agencies registered domain names for two new federal government websites related to aliens, sparking fresh speculation about what the government might be preparing to reveal.
Ranking
Delaware tops the list this year, up from fourth place last year, with 1,097 reported sightings since 1974, or one sighting for every 928 residents, and frequent reports of mysterious flying cylinders hovering above homes with flashes of light. Washington state, which ranked first last year, slipped to second place with 7,595 sightings, or one sighting for every 977 residents.
UFO Hotspots Across America/casino.ca
New York ranks third with 8,314 sightings, with recent reports including one witness describing “a white Tic-Tac shaped object in the sky” and another reporting “a silvery orb flying overhead.” Three mysterious glowing dots were also spotted hovering over Corona, Queens, which coincidentally was the site of the climactic final scene in the 1997 sci-fi film “Men in Black,” sparking a new round of online speculation.The full top ten is as follows: Delaware, one sighting per 928 residents; Washington, 1 per 977 residents; New York, 1 per 1,003 residents; Oregon, 1 per 1,054 residents; Florida, 1 per 1,102 residents; Texas, 1 per 1,119 residents; Montana, 1 per 1,125 residents 1 in 1,158 people in Vermont; 1 in 1,169 people in New Mexico; and 1 in 1,260 people in Georgia.Nevada, home to Area 51, has long been associated with UFO mythology, ranking 19th with one sighting per 1,657 residents. California ranked 22nd with a rate of 1 per 1,708 people. With one sighting for every 3,464 residents, Louisiana is the state least likely to experience close encounters.
What do the numbers mean?
Casino.ca has confirmed 187,870 UFO sightings reported nationwide since 1974, so the chance of an alien abduction occurring nationwide is about 1 in 1,770, or 0.056%. For context, the chance of being attacked by a shark is about 1 in 11.5 million. Dennis Anderson, a former member of the Center for UFO Research, attributes New York’s high sighting rate to population density. The state’s large population means more residents are observing objects in the sky that they cannot easily identify. The data used in Casino.ca’s rankings was updated and verified as of March 11, 2026, and is based solely on reported sightings, not any verified evidence of alien activity. March 20 is National Alien Abduction Day, but it is not officially recognized by the government.
Meanwhile, in Washington
The release of the rankings coincides with a separate development that adds to the discussion about aliens this week. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency registered two federal website domain names, Alien.gov and Aliens.gov, on March 17. As of March 19, neither website was online. Asked about the domains, White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told USA Today: “Stay tuned!” The domains arrive less than a month after Trump said he would order federal agencies to release government documents on extraterrestrial life and UFOs, in response to former President Barack Obama’s Brian Taylor Cohen Podcastwho believes alien life exists but has never seen evidence of it.Trump criticized Obama for releasing what he called “confidential information.” Some UAP files have been passed national archives Following former President Joe Biden signing the legislation in 2023, Congress has held three hearings on the topic since that year. The federal government has yet to explain why the two domains were created.
