Individuals have gotten extra open to the concept that aliens have visited Earth, in line with a sequence of polls that present perception in alien visitation has been steadily on the rise since 2012.
Virtually half—47 %—of Individuals say they suppose aliens have positively or most likely visited Earth sooner or later in time, in line with a brand new poll from YouGov performed in November 2025 that concerned 1,114 grownup individuals. That proportion is up from roughly a 3rd (36 %) of Individuals polled in 2012 by Kelton Analysis, with the very same pattern dimension. Gallup published polls on this query in 2019 and 2021 that likewise present an upward pattern.
Furthermore, folks appear to be getting off the fence on this difficulty, someway. Simply 16 % of Individuals mentioned they had been not sure if aliens had visited Earth within the new ballot, down from 48 % who had been not sure in 2012. In the meantime, at the same time as perception in alien visitation has risen, so has doubt: The brand new ballot reveals that 37 % of Individuals mentioned Earth probably hasn’t been visited by aliens, greater than double the 17 % logged in 2012.
It’s inconceivable to know precisely why Individuals have change into extra receptive to alien visitation from these polls alone; they solely embrace uncooked statistics, and lack granular particulars concerning the particular motivations for the individuals’ responses.
“It’s vital to notice that this can be a ballot about perception,” says Susan Lepselter, an author and affiliate professor of anthropology and American Research at Indiana College who has written extensively on alien beliefs and UFO experiences. “It is not a ballot about expertise, contact, emotions—nothing like that.”
“We don’t know what their engagement is; we do not know if their perception has been life-changing,” she provides. “We simply know one factor, which is that the statistics have moved from one set of beliefs to a different.”
After all, it’s nonetheless doable—and let’s be actual, enjoyable—to invest on the drivers of the pattern. One apparent wrongdoer is a brand new posture from institutional information sources, such because the US authorities and legacy media, which have lastly began taking unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) significantly.
This shift started with the discharge of mysterious Pentagon UAP videos by The New York Instances in 2017, and has since been accelerated by spate of Congressional hearings, and a NASA independent study on UAP. The newly launched documentary The Age of Disclosure, which options claims by former army officers that the US authorities has lined up proof of aliens visiting Earth, has supercharged the legitimacy to this as soon as marginalized subject.
