What Do People Think About UFOs/UAPs?

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Charting Belief from “Flying Saucers” to “Anomalous Phenomena”

Public interest in objects observed in the sky that defy easy explanation is not a new phenomenon. For more than three-quarters of a century, the topic of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), now formally referred to in government and military circles as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), has captured the public imagination. This enduring fascination has been meticulously tracked through decades of public opinion polling. Major survey organizations, news outlets, and research centers have repeatedly posed questions to the public, seeking to gauge their beliefs, experiences, and suspicions.

This article provides a detailed examination of significant polls and surveys conducted on the subject. It traces the evolution of public thought from the initial “flying saucer” craze of 1947 to the modern era of United States Congress hearings and official government reports. The data reveals a complex landscape of opinion: a broad acceptance of the possibility of extraterrestrial life, a consistent suspicion of government transparency, and a stable, small percentage of the population who report having personally witnessed a UAP. By analyzing these polls, we can observe how public sentiment has ebbed, flowed, and solidified in response to cultural moments, media reports, and official disclosures.

The Foundational Polls: Early Public Awareness (1940s-1960s)

The origin of modern UAP polling can be traced to the very beginning of the phenomenon itself. The questions asked in the mid-20th century established a baseline for all future research, focusing on two simple but essential metrics: awareness and belief.

The 1947 Gallup Poll: “Flying Saucers” Enter the Lexicon

In the summer of 1947, following the famous sighting by pilot Kenneth Arnold and the subsequent “flying saucer” moniker coined by the press, the Gallup organization conducted one of the first known national polls on the topic. The results were not about belief, but about awareness. The poll found that a stunning 90% of Americans had already heard of the term “flying saucers” just weeks after it entered the public consciousness.

This poll is significant because it quantifies the sheer speed and depth of media saturation. The topic was not a fringe interest; it had become an overnight national conversation. This widespread awareness laid the groundwork for decades of speculation, investigation, and, of course, more polling. It established that the phenomenon, whatever its true nature, was a powerful cultural force from the moment of its inception. Early theories floated in the poll’s responses were varied, with many respondents speculating that the objects were new secret weapons, either domestic or foreign, a reflection of the nascent Cold War anxieties of the time.

The 1966 Gallup Vault: Eyewitnesses to Flying Saucers

Nearly two decades later, Gallup revisited the topic, moving beyond simple awareness to gauge belief and personal experience. This 1966 poll provides one of the most valuable historical data points, revealing a public that had become more contemplative and deeply divided on the issue.

The poll’s key findings were striking for their time. When asked if they had ever seen anything they thought was a “flying saucer,” 5% of Americans said yes. While this seems like a small fraction, it translated to millions of people, indicating that the phenomenon was not just something people read about but something they felt they had personally experienced.

Even more telling was the question of belief. Of the 96% of Americans who had heard of flying saucers, 46% stated they thought they were “something real” rather than “just people’s imagination.” This near-majority belief in the reality of the phenomenon demonstrated that the topic had gained significant legitimacy in the public mind, despite official skepticism.

However, “something real” did not necessarily mean extraterrestrial. When asked what they thought these “flying saucers” were, the public was fragmented. Only a small percentage, 7% of the total sample, believed they were vehicles from outer space. A slightly larger portion, 9%, held onto the 1947-era theory that they were secret military projects. Other explanations included natural phenomena like meteors or “swamp gas,” the latter being a reference to an official United States Air Force explanation for sightings in Michigan that same year. This 1966 poll perfectly captures the state of public opinion at the time: a widespread belief that something was happening, but no consensus on what it was.

The Abduction Question: The 1991 Roper Poll

The conversation around UAPs shifted dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s, moving from simple lights in the sky to complex narratives of close encounters and alleged abductions. This cultural shift demanded a new, and far more controversial, line of polling.

Unusual Personal Experiences: An Analysis of the Data

In 1991, the Roper Organization conducted a poll that remains one of the most debated and controversial surveys in the history of the topic. The poll was not a standard UAP survey. Commissioned and privately funded by UFO researchers, its purpose was to see how many Americans reported experiences that the researchers associated with the “abduction phenomenon.”

The poll, titled “Unusual Personal Experiences,” did not ask directly if respondents had been abducted by aliens. Instead, it listed five key “indicator experiences” and asked if respondents had ever had them:

1. Waking up paralyzed with a sense of a strange person or presence in the room.
2. Experiencing a period of lost time of an hour or more, where they could not remember why.
3. Feeling that they were actually flying through the air, although they didn’t know how or why.
4. Seeing unusual lights or balls of light in a room without knowing the cause.
5. Finding puzzling scars on their body that they couldn’t remember receiving.

The poll’s authors concluded that 119 out of 5,947 respondents, or about 2%, had experienced at least four of these five indicators. This led to the widely publicized and sensational claim that “one out of every fifty” Americans, or millions of people, “may have had UFO abduction experiences.”

This poll has been heavily criticized. Skeptics and psychologists point out that many of these experiences, particularly sleep paralysis (Indicator 1) and “lost time” (Indicator 2), are known psychological and physiological phenomena. Critics argue that the poll did not prove alien abduction but instead measured the prevalence of these common, albeit strange, human experiences and then applied a highly speculative interpretation to the results. The link httpsa://around.com/abduct-html/ provides a detailed critical analysis of the poll’s methodology and its conclusions.

Despite the controversy, the 1991 Roper Poll is a landmark event. It marks the point where polling intersected with the more sensational aspects of UAP lore and demonstrated how survey data could be used to generate extraordinary claims.

The Modern Era of Polling: Renewed Interest and Government Acknowledgment (2017-Present)

Public and media interest in UAPs was reignited in December 2017 by a front-page article in The New York Times that confirmed the existence of a secret Pentagon program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). This official acknowledgment, combined with the release of verified military videos of UAP encounters, fundamentally changed the nature of the conversation. Polling organizations responded by launching a new wave of surveys, probing a public that was now grappling with official confirmation that the government was, and had been, taking the subject seriously.

Gallup 2019: Skeptical of UFOs, Convinced of a Cover-Up

In 2019, Gallup provided one of the first comprehensive looks at public opinion in this new era. The results showed a public that had grown more convinced of two things: that UAPs were not alien, and that the government was not telling the whole truth.

A key finding of this poll was the durability of public suspicion. A large majority of Americans, 68%, said they believe the U.S. government “knows more about UFOs than it is telling us.” This figure was remarkably stable, having barely moved from the 71% who said the same in a 1996 Gallup poll. This suggests a deep, multi-generational distrust of official narratives on this topic, regardless of the cultural or political climate.

At the same time, belief in an extraterrestrial explanation for UAP sightings had actually decreased. In this 2019 poll, 33% of Americans (one-third) agreed with the statement that some UFOs “have been alien spacecraft visiting Earth.” This was a significant drop from the 50% who held that belief in 1996. The 2019 poll found that 60% of Americans believed all sightings could be explained by human activity or natural phenomena, up from 39% in 1996.

This poll paints a fascinating picture of the American mind post-2017. The public, now aware that the military was actively tracking UAPs, seemed to have concluded that the “human activity” explanation (such as secret domestic or foreign technology) was more likely than the extraterrestrial one. However, this shift did not absolve the government of secrecy. The public’s default position remained firm: whatever UAPs are, the government isn’t being forthcoming about them.

The poll also revealed interesting demographic details. Belief in an alien origin was higher among residents of the Western United States (40%) than in the Midwest (27%). Personal sightings remained consistent with past polls, with 16% of Americans saying they had personally seen something they thought was a UFO.

Pew Research 2021: Intelligent Life and National Security

In June 2021, just before the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) was scheduled to release its first landmark report on UAPs, the Pew Research Center conducted a detailed survey. This poll is significant for separating the broad question of “Are we alone?” from the specific question of “Are they here?”

The poll found that a large majority of Americans, 65%, say their best guess is that “intelligent life exists on other planets.” This shows a broad public acceptance of the core concept of extraterrestrial intelligence, a concept distinct from the UAP phenomenon.

However, when asked specifically about the UAPs reported by military personnel, the public was more divided. A slim majority, 51%, said these military-reported UAPs are “likely evidence of intelligent life outside Earth.” This 51% was composed of 40% who said it was “probably” evidence and 11% who said it was “definitely” evidence. This finding highlights a key nuance: while most Americans believe in aliens in a general, cosmic sense, only about half are willing to connect the UAP phenomenon directly to that belief.

A second major finding of the Pew poll related to threat perception. With the conversation now framed around national security, Pew asked if UAPs posed a threat. The public response was largely unconcerned. A vast majority, 87%, said that UAPs are “not a threat at all” (51%) or are only a “minor threat” (36%) to U.S. national security. Only 10% viewed them as a “major threat.”

The demographic data from the Pew poll was also revealing. Younger Americans (under 30) were far more likely (76%) to believe in intelligent life on other planets than those 50 and older (57%). Men (70%) were also more likely than women (60%) to hold this belief. The survey also found that 45% of Americans thought the government was doing a “good job” handling UAP reports, while 49% said it was doing a “bad job,” indicating a nearly even split on confidence in the government’s performance. The poll’s full topline data can be found here: https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/TOPLINE-Views-on-UFOs.pdf.

CBS News 2021: Two in Three Americans Think Intelligent Life Exists

A CBS News poll conducted in 2021 further solidified the findings from Pew and Gallup, showing strong consistency across different polling organizations. This poll, released in May 2021, confirmed the high baseline of belief in extraterrestrial life. It found that 66% of Americans, or two in three, believe “there is intelligent life on other planets.” This was a notable increase from 56% in 2017 and 47% in 2010, showing a clear upward trend.

The poll also reinforced the public’s deep-seated suspicion of the government. When asked about UAPs, 73% of Americans said the government “knows more about UFOs than it is telling” the public. This figure aligns almost perfectly with the Gallup poll from 1996 (71%) and 2019 (68%). This consistency across decades and polling firms is one of the most stable findings in all UAP-related polling.

The CBS poll also asked why the government might be withholding information. Of those who believe the government is holding back, 50% said it’s because the information could cause “public panic.” Another 40% believed it was because the information is “related to national security,” and 34% suspected the government “can’t explain what the UFOs are.” This provides a rich insight into the public’s theories about the government’s motivations.

Ipsos 2023: Beliefs in the Supernatural and UFOs

An Ipsos poll conducted in July 2023, just before a high-profile House Oversight Committee hearing on UAPs, contextualized belief in UFOs alongside other supernatural or paranormal beliefs.

The poll found that 42% of Americans “believe in UFOs,” a figure that was lower than the belief in ghosts (46%) but higher than the belief in witchcraft (25%) or Bigfoot (22%). This framing is important, as it shows that a significant plurality of the public places UFOs in the category of “real” phenomena, even if they are unexplained.

When it comes to personal experience, the Ipsos poll found that 10% of Americans say they have “personally seen an unidentified flying object (UFO).” This number is remarkably stable, aligning with Gallup polls from 1973 (11%) and 1978 (9%), and slightly lower than the 2019 Gallup poll (16%). This suggests that for half a century, the percentage of the population that reports a personal sighting has hovered consistently around one in ten. This stability is a significant finding, indicating that despite the proliferation of camera phones and drones, the rate of self-reported sightings has not dramatically changed.

International and Official Perspectives

While most well-known polling has been centered in the United States, the UAP phenomenon is global. In recent years, other nations have begun to officially survey both the phenomenon and their own public’s attitudes toward it.

The Sky Canada Project: 2025 Report on UAP

In 2025, the Government of Canada released a preview of its “Sky Canada Project,” an official effort to create a framework for UAP reporting and analysis. This report, published by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, included data from a survey commissioned for the project.

This official Canadian data provides a valuable point of comparison with U.S. polls. The survey found that one in ten Canadians (10%) report having personally witnessed a UAP in their lifetime. This figure is an exact match for the July 2023 Ipsos poll in the U.S. and is in line with 50 years of American polling, suggesting that the personal sighting experience is a consistent, cross-border phenomenon.

The Canadian survey also highlighted a significant public desire for an official, non-judgmental reporting system. The report noted that a “majority of respondents support the establishment of a federal government service to gather UAP reports and make findings publicly available.” This finding mirrors the sentiment in U.S. polls, where the public consistently expresses a desire for more government transparency and data.

Official Government Surveys of Data: AARO and NASA

While not public opinion polls, a new and important category of survey has emerged from the U.S. government itself. These are not surveys of belief, but surveys of data.

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the official Pentagon office for UAP analysis, provides annual reports to Congress that effectively survey the data it receives from military and intelligence sources. These reports, such as the Fiscal Year 2023 Consolidated Annual Report, provide a statistical breakdown of the “morphologies” (shapes), locations, and behaviors of UAP reports. These official surveys conclude that most UAP reports, upon investigation, resolve into “ordinary objects” like “balloons, unmanned aerial systems, clutter, or natural phenomena.” However, they also acknowledge a percentage of “unresolved” cases that remain anomalous.

Similarly, the NASA UAP Independent Study Team released its final report in 2023. This report was a survey of the scientific data landscape. Its primary conclusion was that the current dataset is insufficient for drawing scientific conclusions. The panel found that the data collected from military and civilian sensors is not “calibrated” for scientific analysis and is often “incomplete.” The NASA report’s main recommendation was for a more systematic and scientific approach to data collection.

These government reports are a key part of the modern UAP landscape. They influence public opinion by officially validating that the government is receiving a high volume of reports, even as they simultaneously conclude that most of these reports have prosaic explanations and that there is “no evidence of extraterrestrial origin.”

Summary

Decades of public opinion polling on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena reveal a remarkably consistent and nuanced public perspective. From the first Gallup poll in 1947, the topic has been a central fixture of public awareness.

Several key trends are durable across more than 75 years of data. First, a large majority of the public, often as high as two-thirds, believes that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe. Second, a smaller but still significant portion of the population (ranging from one-third to one-half) believes that some UAPs are evidence of that intelligent life visiting Earth. Third, the most stable finding of all is a significant and unwavering public suspicion of the government. In poll after poll, across different decades, a supermajority of Americans (typically 68-73%) believe their government knows more about UAPs than it is disclosing.

Finally, the percentage of individuals who report a personal sighting has remained remarkably steady, hovering around 10% of the population in both the U.S. and Canada. This stability persists despite technological and cultural shifts. As the U.S. government and other world bodies continue to declassify information and encourage systematic reporting, public opinion will continue to be a dynamic and essential measure of this enduring mystery.

This article has examined the following key polls and reports:

• 1947 Gallup Poll
• 1966 Gallup Poll
• 1991 Roper Poll (Analysis)
• 2019 Gallup Poll
• 2021 Pew Research Center Poll
• 2021 CBS News Poll
• 2023 Ipsos Poll
• 2025 Sky Canada Project Report

These surveys, taken as a whole, provide a comprehensive history not of the UAP phenomenon itself, but of our collective effort to understand and quantify our place in relation to it.

Last update on 2025-12-05 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API