Most Americans Believe in Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

About two-thirds of Americans (65%) say their best guess is that intelligent life exists on other planets, according to a June Pew Research Center survey. That survey was conducted just before the government released a report saying it could not “draw firm conclusions” about aerial phenomena witnessed by Navy pilots from 2004 to 2021. A sizable share of the public (51%) says that UFOs reported by people in the military are likely evidence of intelligent life outside Earth. Most of this sentiment comes from people who say that military-reported UFOs are “probably” evidence of extraterrestrial life (40%), rather than “definitely” such evidence (11%), according to the survey of 10,417 U.S. adults.