Government: 27% of the Canadian population claim to have observed UFOs
In a report published in January 2025, the Canadian government funded a survey of its population on the subject of UFOs.
While scientific groups in academic circles have been hard at work investigating the subject of UFOs, the question of gauging public interest in this research has long been a mystery, given the cost of setting up representative surveys.
Thanks to the Canadian government, we now have an estimate of this issue in contemporary Western culture. These surveys, conducted as part of the feasibility study for Project Sky Canada, show a high level of public interest in UAPs, with 27% claiming to have experienced it in their lifetime.
This can be explained by a less restrictive cultural context on the subject than its American neighbour, the establishment of previous government programmes that have already studied the subject, the presence of local organisations that answer questions from the public, and media coverage of topical issues, such as that of journalist Daniel Otis.
Canadian territory is also rich in sightings near large bodies of water. The province of Saskatchewan is also famous for its sightings, despite having a population density four times lower than Russia. What's more, the aerial observations of unidentified objects in February 2023, on the border between Canada and the United States, are likely to have reinforced the authorities' suspicions.
The report by Canada's Office of the Chief Science Advisor, created in 2017 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, aims to:
to restore science as a pillar of government decision-making
The Canadian government's launch of this feasibility study of a programme to investigate UAPs follows numerous meetings and exchanges between American activists and Canadian elected representatives, as well as exchanges with American authorities, not only through NORAD, which coordinates the joint US-Canadian defence zone, but also as a partner in the Five Eyes group, and through discussions with American officials and former officials responsible for dealing with the issue of UAPs.
This did not prevent the Canadian government from trying to protect itself from attacks on its reputation by issuing the following statement in advance of access to the file:
It should be noted that the Sky Canada Project is not intended to access and collect first-hand data (like photos, testimonies, etc.), nor is it intended to make the OCSA the main point of contact for Canadians wishing to report observations or personal experiences. Furthermore, it is not meant to prove or disprove the existence of extraterrestrial life or extraterrestrial visitors.
The report is introduced by a letter from Canada's Chief Science Advisor, Dr. Mona Nemer, outlining the purpose of the report:
Our goal was to find the current resources and processes in place for handling and following up on UAP reports, to compare them with the best practices in other countries, and to make recommendations for potential improvements. Accordingly, this report focuses on the services available to the Canadian public for reporting UAPs, and not on the UAPs themselves; understanding this distinction is critical to reading the report. The Sky Canada Project is not about investigating what UAPs are. It is about science informing and serving everyone.
This is only a pre-publication of the full report, which will be published in March. Proof that the public is following the issue with interest, Dr. Nemer adds :
The preparation of this report has garnered more public anticipation than any project in the history of this office.
Despite a rich territory of observations, the report sheds a harsh light on the perceived shortcomings of Canada's handling of the “UAP” problem :
Lack of a coherent and standardised reporting and follow-up system
Lack of public engagement
Limited analysis of UAP reports
Insufficient scientific engagement
Modest efforts to improve science literacy, including in planetary science
The report therefore recommends to :
Identify a lead: A federal department or agency responsible for managing public UAP data should be identified. The lead should be a trusted and recognized scientific organization, have the capacity to communicate with the public and an already established international scientific network. The Canadian Space Agency could be considered for such a role.
Establish a dedicated service: This service would collect testimonies, investigate cases and post its analyses publicly. It would proactively inform Canadians about UAPs. To achieve these goals, it could convene a network of government and academic partners and experts to conduct scientific analyses and follow up with observers.
Enhance reporting capacity in civil aviation: Transport Canada should encourage pilots, cabin crews and air traffic controllers to report UAP sightings without fear of stigmatization. In collaboration with NAV CANADA, they should analyse UAP reports to track trends and provide pilots with explanations, helping to reduce distractions during flights. These reports could be correlated and merged with those submitted by the public on similar sightings.
We can see here an attempt by Canada to create the equivalent of GEIPAN, the French public body for the collection and analysis of evidence, under the authority of the French space agency CNES.
In terms of communication, the report recommends to :
promote exchanges with the public.
encourage intergovernmental communication between the various departments of the Canadian government to determine the origin of sightings.
encourage the collection of eyewitness reports.
answering users' questions in order to limit misinformation and disinformation, with the help of a panel of experts.
On this last point, one wonders what kind of expert qualifications could recommend where to stand on the truth of an issue that is riddled with attempts at state and private influence and has no pre-existing academic institutions.
As for scientific research, while the report recommends opening up data to the public, it remains very vague on how the government could promote national scientific programmes, only mentioning that the space sector could be used. The proposed data collection tools are phone-based, a far cry from what Dr Avi Loeb is building at Harvard. One might imagine that the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory could participate in such research with dedicated equipment.
The report concludes with a recommendation to improve international cooperation with specialised partners.
The report concludes that there is a need for a more structured approach to the study of UAPs, which could also serve as an international communication tool to showcase Canadian science. Another benefit would be to build trust in the Canadian government by addressing an issue that is close to home.
Annex B of the report contains the analysis of the survey:
30% of respondents said they were concerned about UAPs observed over their territory.
40% of respondents believe that UAPs pose a risk to aviation.
55% of respondents believe that there is false information about UFOs in the mass media.
extraterrestrial origin is the most commonly cited cause of UFOs, ahead of government programmes and espionage, natural phenomena and conventional spacecraft.
only 46% of respondents believe there is no evidence that extraterrestrial civilisations exist.
67% of respondents have become interested in the subject in recent years.
27% of witnesses have observed something they couldn't identify, including :
11% within the last year.
21% between 2 and 5 years ago.
22% between 6 and 10 years ago.
43% more than 10 years ago.
Of these, only 9% reported their sighting. 45% of them have reported their sighting to a non-governmental group, but this solution is favoured by only 6% of all respondents, behind the authorities, the media, scientific institutions, the federal government and the provincial government.
Only 2% of respondents are aware of the existence of organisations and groups that investigate UAPs.
49% of respondents believe that the Canadian government should act and take UAPs seriously.
55% say it is important to create a specialised agency.
71% think it is important for the government to make sighting information available to the public.
58% of respondents said that the Canadian government should encourage citizen science, with 49% in favour of spending public money on research.
If we take this survey as indicative of Canadian opinion, some extrapolations can be made:
27% of the Canadian population claim to have seen a UFO, which, in a population of about 40,000,000, equates to about 10,800,000 witnesses.
If we consider the most restrictive results possible using GEIPAN, approximately 96.8% of cases can be ruled out due to conventional causes, misidentification, or simply lack of information to confirm that a case is truly anomalous.
This gives an estimate of 345,600 high-confidence anomalous sightings in the entire living Canadian population, indicating that the vast majority of anomalous sightings go unreported. Furthermore, according to Jacques Vallée, the more abnormal and informative a case is, the less it is reported because it falls outside acceptable cultural conventions. One can only wonder at the wealth of information that could be found if these cases were actually reported.
According to the surveys, this can be explained by a lack of communication on the part of the groups working on the subject, the lack of a specialised government agency to carry out investigations and the lack of official communication on the subject.
It is to be hoped that the government will heed the call of its people and not waver in the face of the public attacks that have already been launched against the issue in Canada.