Interactive map shows every UFO spotted since 2020 – find your nearest sighting

Brits can find out the locations most likely to be visited by aliens – and how close they are to you – with an interactive map of all the sightings that have been made since 2020

Brits can see where UFOs have been spotted across the country during the past four years on a map – showing nearly 2,000 extra-terrestrial sightings.

It has been an intriguing time for UFO enthusiasts around the world with an American fighter jet shooting down an unexplained flying object that was later identified as a Chinese balloon last year. It was suspected of being on a spying mission along with three other objects in or near American airspace.

And then whistle-blower Major David Grusch, a former Air Force intelligence officer, set the internet on fire when he claimed the US was concealing a long-standing programme that retrieves and reverse-engineers unidentified flying objects. The intrigue has continued into 2024, with Ukrainian troops recording a huge disc-shaped object over the battlefield of Donetsk, while closer to home a hiker came upon a mysterious monolith on a hilltop in Powys, Wales.

He initially assumed was “some sort of UFO”, and has since left some speculating it may have been planted by aliens. But despite increasing speculation about alien visitors online the skies above the UK have been relatively quiet in the past year and we are no closer to finding out if we are not alone in the universe.

In its annual report, the research group UFO Identified documented 395 sightings in the UK in 2023 – a 20% drop from 497 sightings in 2022 and lower than in 2021 (413) and 2020 (484). That adds up to 1,789 sightings in four years. Information was taken from social media, newspaper reports, and over 50 Freedom of Information requests, as well as from reports made directly to UFO spotter groups around the UK.

According to the report, people in the North West had the best chance of seeing a UFO last year, with 41 sightings across the region, followed by the South East (40) and then the South West (39). That is broadly similar to the location of sightings in 2022 and 2021. Over the four years UFO Identified has documented the phenomenon, the highest number of sightings have been seen in the South East (233), followed by the North West (218) and then the South West (193). The lowest number of sightings have been reported in Northern Ireland (30), and the North East of England (63).

While flying saucers and other unexplained phenomena were most likely to be spotted in the North West or the South East, the data shows that the best time to see a UFO last year was on a Monday evening between 9pm and 10pm. The most common sighting was a “star-like” UFO, followed by an orb – with several different witnesses reporting clusters of orbs in the skies across different locations.

The vast majority of sightings were of far-off objects in the sky, but there were 27 “Close Encounters of the First Kind”, more than double the previous year. These are reports of UFOs seen up close, at a distance of no more than 500 feet away. There were also two “Close Encounters of the Second Kind” which is when a UFO sighting appears to cause a physical effect, such as a car malfunction, a ground impression, or a reaction in animals.

Sightings documented last year include:

• Around 40 orbs were seen moving in a “cross formation” over Greater Manchester, led by one very bright orb.

• Multiple orbs were also seen over Mildenhall in Suffolk, also led by one “abnormally bright” object. And these UFOs appeared to disrupt car radios.

• A “flying saucer illuminated by varying red glowing spheres” was seen over Worksop in Nottinghamshire

• A dark and silent “squashed triangle” was seen gliding over Point Clear in Essex

• Up to 15 bright lights pursued by two fighter jets and an Apache helicopter