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Article by Andrew Whalen September 6, 2019 (newsweek.com)
• A new Gallup poll of 1,522 adults in the United States found that one-third of respondents believe that “some UFOs have been alien spacecraft visiting Earth from other planets or galaxies”.
• Carving out a demographic of young people, non-college graduates, and non-religious people, 40% believe that UFOs are from alien worlds. But no category fell below 27% in believing in extraterrestrial visitors. People in Western USA were more likely to believe in alien UFOs, while Mid-Westerners were the least likely to believe. But the belief in an alien presence was generally consistent across gender identity and income groups.
• Although the majority of Americans don’t believe aliens are visiting our planet, 3/4 do believe that extraterrestrial life exists on other planets. Half of Americans believe that “people somewhat like ourselves exist elsewhere in the universe.”
• While the extraterrestrial explanation for the UFO phenomena represents only a substantial minority of the United States, a large majority agree that the government of the United States knows “more about UFOs than it is telling us.” The percentage of those suspicious of the US government today is 68%, while a 1996 poll showed it was 71%. Gallup says that this belief is “similar among all main demographic groups,” including political party identification. It is surprising that this percentage has dipped slightly with the recent revelations from mainstream outlets such as the New York Times and Politico of the US Navy encountering UFOs.
• Meanwhile, actual UFO sightings have increased from a low of 9% in 1978 and 1987, to 16% of US adults saying they’ve seen a UFO in 2019.
A new Gallup poll of 1,522 adults in the United States found that one-third of respondents believe extraterrestrial spacecraft are visiting Earth.
When asked to choose between “some UFOs have been alien spacecraft visiting Earth from other planets or galaxies” and “all UFO sightings can be explained by human activity on Earth or natural phenomenon,” 33 percent of all adults polled selected the first option.
Demographic groups more likely to believe in visiting alien spaceships include the young (18-29), non-college graduates and the irreligious, with respondents in those categories trending toward 40 percent. But even with variation across demographic groups, no category fell below 27 percent of respondents describing some UFOs as alien spacecraft.
The poll even found an interesting regional bump, with people from the West far more likely to prefer the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Midwesterners, on the other hand, were most skeptical of aliens coming to this planet. Belief in extraterrestrial vessels entering Earth’s atmosphere was consistent across gender identity and within the margin of sampling error across income groups.
While the majority of Americans don’t believe aliens are visiting our planet, three-quarters believe that extraterrestrial life exists on other planets, with half of Americans going further and agreeing that “people somewhat like ourselves exist elsewhere in the universe.”
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