The Empire State recorded 8,314 UFO sightings since 1974, or one for every 1,003 residents. Delaware holds the top spot.New York has climbed two places to rank third among the most likely states in the United States for alien abductions, according to Casino.ca’s annual ranking published to mark National Alien Abduction Day on 20 March. The gambling guide compiled the list by sifting through 150,000 sighting entries on the National UFO Reporting Center covering the period between 1974 and 2026, cross-referenced with social media data for sighting details , to calculate UFO sightings per capita across all fifty states. The list arrives at a moment of renewed public interest in UFOs and extraterrestrial life, weeks after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to release classified government files on extraterrestrial life and UFOs, and days after two new federal government website domains related to aliens were registered by a US agency, fuelling fresh speculation about what the government may be preparing to disclose.
The rankings
Delaware holds the top spot this year, moving up from fourth place last year, with 1,097 reported sightings since 1974, one for every 928 residents, and frequent reports of mysterious flying cylinders with beaming lights hovering above homes. Washington state, which held the top position last year, slipped to second with 7,595 reported sightings, or one for every 977 residents.
UFO Hotspots Across The US/casino.ca
New York’s 8,314 sightings place it third, with recent reports including a witness describing “a white, Tic-Tac-shaped object in the sky” and another reporting “a silver orb flying overhead.” A trio of mysterious luminous dots was also spotted hovering over Corona, Queens, coincidentally the location of the climactic final scene in the 1997 science fiction film Men in Black, prompting a fresh wave of online speculation.The full top ten is as follows: Delaware, one sighting per 928 residents; Washington, one per 977; New York, one per 1,003; Oregon, one per 1,054; Florida, one per 1,102; Texas, one per 1,119; Montana, one per 1,125; Vermont, one per 1,158; New Mexico, one per 1,169; and Georgia, one per 1,260.Nevada, home to Area 51 and long associated with UFO mythology, ranked 19th with one sighting per 1,657 residents. California landed at 22nd with one per 1,708. Louisiana, with one sighting per 3,464 residents, is the state least likely to produce a close encounter.
What the numbers mean
Across the United States as a whole, Casino.ca identified 187,870 UFO sightings reported since 1974, putting the national odds of an alien abduction at approximately one in 1,770, or 0.056 per cent. For context, the likelihood of being attacked by a shark stands at around one in 11.5 million. Dennis Anderson, a former member of the Center for UFO Studies, attributed New York’s high sighting count largely to population density, the sheer volume of people in the state means more residents are looking at things in the sky they cannot readily identify. data used in Casino.ca’s ranking was updated and verified as of 11 March 2026 and is based solely on reported sightings rather than any verified evidence of alien activity. National Alien Abduction Day, observed on 20 March, has no official governmental recognition.
Meanwhile, in Washington
The ranking’s publication coincides with a separate development that has added to the week’s extraterrestrial chatter. Two federal website domains, Alien.gov and Aliens.gov, were registered on 17 March by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. As of 19 March, neither site is live. When asked about the domains, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told USA Today: “Stay tuned!” The domains arrived less than a month after Trump said he would order federal agencies to release government files on extraterrestrial life and UFOs, comments made in response to former President Barack Obama saying on a podcast with Brian Tyler Cohen, that he believes extraterrestrial life exists but has never personally seen evidence of it.Trump criticised Obama for releasing what he described as “classified information.” Some UAP documents have already been made publicly available through the National Archives following legislation signed by former President Joe Biden in 2023, and Congress has held three hearings on the subject since that year. The federal government has not explained why the two domains were created.