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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spin Control

Have you seen a UFO?

This is a map of the per capita sitings of UFOs, adjusted for the rate of heavy drinking, in each state based on data from the National UFO Reporting Center, the CDC and Vox.com (Vox.com)
This is a map of the per capita sitings of UFOs, adjusted for the rate of heavy drinking, in each state based on data from the National UFO Reporting Center, the CDC and Vox.com (Vox.com)

If you live in Washington, odds are greater that you have seen a UFO than if you lived in, say, South Dakota. Or even Idaho.

That's according to data compiled by the National UFO Reporting Center, which has tracked sitings of unidentified flying objects for about 50 years, and looked at records going back even farther.

The website Vox.com took the data from NUFORC and cross-referenced it with the Centers for Disease Control data on heavy drinking, as a way to allow for the fact that some people who've had too much to drink might not be the most reliable sources of what they think they see.

Either way, Washington state has the most UFO sitings per capita. Idaho has fewer, which either says something about the residents of the Gem State, or the occupants of UFOs.

Or maybe Washington's tourism agency has a better intergalactic ad campaign than Idaho. 



Jim Camden
Jim Camden joined The Spokesman-Review in 1981 and retired in 2021. He is currently the political and state government correspondent covering Washington state.

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