570 UFO Sightings Reported in Canada Last Year: Survey

A UFO captured in declassified military footage. Department of Defense/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

UFO sightings aren’t nearly as rare as many Canadians might think.

A new survey from Ufology Research revealed 570 people officially filed UFO sighting reports in Canada last year, but that number doesn’t come close to representing the number actually seen, according to Canadian science writer and UFO expert Chris Rutkowski.

“Studies have shown that only about one in 10 people report their UFO sightings,” Mr. Rutkowski told the Epoch Times.

The newly released Annual Canadian UFO Survey said roughly 50 sightings of UFOs, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, were reported each month in Canada in 2023, although there were “noticeable monthly peaks in reported UAP activity in February and August.”

Forty-five percent of the UFOs appeared as lights in the sky, better known as nocturnal lights, the survey showed. Approximately 6 percent of the cases were considered “unexplained.”

The survey also found provinces with larger populations tend to have the most UFO reports, something Mr. Rutkowski said is not surprising.

“Statistics show that the number of UFO reports is related to population,” said Mr. Rutkowski, who has been researching UFOs since the 1970s. “If there are more people around as potential witnesses, there will be more reports.”

He said UFO sightings are more common in some areas of Canada than in others. He described the Maritimes as having a higher frequency of sightings while British Columbia seems “underrepresented” by comparison.

While there is “no question” that interest in UFOs has increased in recent years, actual sightings have been relatively steady, Mr. Rutkowski said.

“Based on actual data, the number of UFO sightings has remained fairly constant during the past few years,” he said. “There is a great deal more information and misinformation on social media on the topic, but actual UFO sightings and reports are about the same as in recent years.”

Tracking UFO Sightings

More than 24,000 Canadian UFO reports, 2,612 of them “unexplained,” have been catalogued since the annual Canadian UFO Survey was initiated in 1989 by Ufology Research based out of Manitoba. The survey compiles data from investigators and researchers across the country.

“Without actual data on UFO sightings and reports, we really can’t say much about the true nature of the phenomenon,” Mr. Rutkowski said.

The survey comes just days after Canada’s Chief Science Advisor Mona Nemer announced a study on unidentified aerial objects in Canadian skies would be released this fall.

Known as the Sky Canada Project, the initiative was started in 2022 to examine how Unidentified Aerial Phenomena reports made by the public are managed. The report is expected to make recommendations for improvements.

She said the study is not about proving or disproving alien life forms, but to be more transparent.

“The reason we have taken this on is not because we believe one way or the other about extraterrestrials or anything like that,” she said during a meeting of the standing committee on science and research last month.

“It’s because we believe that it’s important that we have a scientific approach and transparency to how we assemble the information.”

Chandra Philip contributed to this report.