The results of the 2023 Canadian UFO Survey show that UFO sightings continue to be reported in Canada at a significant rate. In 2023, 570 UFO reports were officially filed in Canada with official government agencies, participating private organizations, media, and social media.
The annual Canadian UFO Survey is produced by Ufology Research, based in Manitoba, with the cooperation of investigators and researchers across the country who are working together and sharing data so as to better understand what is being seen and reported across the country.
Sources for UFO reports in 2023 included civilian Canadian UFO organizations (eg. Association québécoise d'ufologie, UFOBC, Ufology Research of Manitoba) some major USA-based groups such as NUFORC and Enigma Labs, and also Canadian government agencies. MUFON case data was not available for the Canadian UFO Survey in 2023.
Since the annual Canadian UFO Survey was initiated in 1989, more than 24,000 Canadian UFO reports have been catalogued during the past 34 years. There are currently about 2,612 Unexplained cases in the Canadian UFO Survey database.
In 2023, there were two noticeable monthly peaks in reported UAP activity: February and August. The former is likely a reaction of the worldwide interest in the several “balloons” observed and intercepted by American missiles about that time. The August peak has been noted in previous years and there has not been a satisfactory explanation proposed for this.
As of the types of reported UFOs, most were simple lights in the sky, known as Nocturnal Lights (44% of cases), while Close Encounters comprised slightly more than 2% of the total.
The provinces with larger populations tended to have the most UFO reports: Ontario had 23% and British Columbia had 2%, but Quebec seemed to have more than its share by population, at 33%, Alberta was greatly under-represented and Nova Scotia was greatly over-represented. This irregular distribution is explained to a large degree as because Quebec and Nova Scotia both have civilian UFO groups with very active public awareness campaigns and thus receive substantial media and social media attention.
In terms of the number of witnesses per case, many sightings were experienced by more than one person but the average number of witnesses per report in 2023 was 1.45.
The average duration of UFO sightings in Canada in 2023 was about 16 minutes, up from 13 minutes in 2022.
The length of time an object is seen suggests some simple explanations for what was being observed by the witness. In fact, the duration of a sighting is one of the biggest clues to its explanation. Experience in studying UFO reports has shown that short duration events are usually fireballs or bolides, and long duration events of an hour or more are very probably astronomical objects moving slowly with Earth’s rotation. Long-duration sightings tend to occur in the early morning hours, from about midnight until 6:00 a.m.
The hourly distribution of cases has usually followed a similar pattern every year, with a peak at 22:00 hours local and a trough around 09:00 hours local. Since most UFOs are nocturnal lights, most sightings will occur during the evening hours.
The most common shape of UFO reported in 2023 was a simple point source of light (45%). Other shapes reported were Triangle (5%), Sphere (6%), Cigar (4%) and Fireball (5%). The classic “Flying saucer” was only reported 18 times (3%) in 2016. An “Irregular” object was reported in 16% of the cases.
The average Strangeness rating for UFO reports during 2023 was about 4.0, where 1 is considered not strange at all and 9 is considered exceptionally unusual. A Strangeness rating is assigned during the data entry process, based on the given.
The average Reliability rating of Canadian UFO reports in 2023 was just under 5, meaning that most cases had minimal investigation, and were likely only report forms filled out by a witness, without extensive supporting documentation or investigation. Higher reliability cases include actual interviews with witnesses, a detailed case investigation, multiple witnesses, supporting documentation, and other evidence.
Since data for many cases are taken from websites and second-hand postings, or in fact self-postings, there is usually no significant investigation of UFO sightings. Well-investigated cases comprise only a small fraction of all UFO data, a fact that makes UFO case data have limited value.
The percentage of UFO cases considered Unexplained in 2023 was about 6%. This is a result of careful scrutiny of raw report information available for analyses. The percentage of Explained cases was about 10%, Probable Explanation cases represented 47% and Insufficient Information cases were 37%. Many reports in 2023 did not have enough information to allow assessment, thus the percentage of Insufficient Information cases was higher than in 2022. Conversely, this situation also resulted in a decrease in Explained cases, which were about 15% in 2022.
The full report of the 2023 Canadian UFO Survey (complete with summaries of the best quality UAP/UFO reports in that year) is available at this link
