Advertisement

Survey says 1,267 UFOs sighted in Canada in 2015, Quebec leads way

US plastic artist Peter Coffin's "Flying Saucer" --a 7-meter, LED-studded, SMS-controlled flying saucer and lifted by a helicopter-- overflies Ipanema beach, on May 23, 2009, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ANTONIO SCORZA/AFP/Getty Images

WINNIPEG – The 2015 Canadian UFO Survey says Quebec leads the country when it comes to sightings of unidentified flying objects.

The annual survey by Winnipeg-based Ufology Research was released Monday and says last year had the second-largest number of sightings in the last three decades, with 1,267.

The year with the most UFO reports — a whopping 1,981 — was 2012, which was also supposed to be the year the world ended, according to the Mayan calendar.

READ MORE: Argentines gather for international intergalactic alien festival

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland reported more UFO sightings last year than the year before, but Quebec alone is responsible for about 35 per cent of all reports in 2015.

Breaking news from Canada and around the world sent to your email, as it happens.

That’s way up from previous years, when Quebec’s percentage was between five and 15 per cent.

Story continues below advertisement

READ MORE: Man uses selfie stick to record space debris crossing daytime sky in Thailand

There were 97 reports in Montreal alone, followed by 78 in Toronto and 69 in Vancouver; Edmonton was a distant fourth with just 36 sightings.

The study said the typical sighting lasts about 16 minutes and more than half of the reports were of simple lights in the sky.

WATCH: A UFO in Lumby? Unusual lights captured on video

The study noted the number of reported UFO sightings remains high and suggested several reasons why, including more secret military flights, better access to reporting sightings, or “even that the downturn in the economy is leading to an increased desire by some people to look skyward for assistance.”

Story continues below advertisement

The study also acknowledged “there is no incontrovertible evidence that some UFO cases involve extraterrestrial contact. The continued reporting of UFOs by the public and the yearly increase in numbers of UFO reports suggests a need for further examination of the phenomenon by social, medical and/or physical scientists.”

Sponsored content

AdChoices