Reports, not a census of Europe's skies
There is no complete, harmonised European total. The figures below count reports received by participating organisations—not proven anomalies, unique witnesses or extraterrestrial objects. Europe here includes countries outside the EU.
Annual reporting activity
The EuroUFO / UAP Check series covers a selected network of national organisations. Changes in participation and collection practices can change the totals.
2026 edition: reporting-channel totals, not harmonised national totals. Enigma enters the series in 2023; older editions must not be spliced into this one. The UK lacks national inputs, Italy has partial inputs, and Romanian national data were pending. The 2025 figure is 7,193 submissions, not 7,193 unique unexplained events.
| Year | Europe · reporting channels | Netherlands · national platform |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | — Outside this edition | 1,418 |
| 2020 | 6,867 | 2,026 |
| 2021 | 4,996 | 1,680 |
| 2022 | 6,018 | 1,659 |
| 2023 | 6,404 | 1,419 |
| 2024 | 6,938 | 1,312 |
| 2025 | 7,193 | 1,329 |
Source: UAP Check / EuroUFO · 2020–2025 · Version 1.0, 2 September 2026 ↗ · UFO Meldpunt Nederland · national statistics ↗
2025 · reporting-channel composition
- Collection
- 4,480
- MUFON
- 586
- NUFORC
- 492
- Enigma
- 1,635
UAP Check / EuroUFO · 2020–2025 · Version 1.0, 2 September 2026 ↗
Selected countries · 2025
All available reporting channels in the same edition. Not a national league table; the UK figure is platform-based. The Dutch national platform separately records 1,329, versus 1,386 across channels.
- Germany
- 1,732
- United Kingdom
- 1,569
- Netherlands
- 1,386
- Italy
- 419
- Sweden
- 352
- Belgium
- 298
- Portugal
- 187
- France
- 183
- Norway
- 158
- Denmark
- 141
- Spain
- 137
- Finland
- 87
UAP Check / EuroUFO · 2020–2025 · Version 1.0, 2 September 2026 ↗
2020: the Starlink effect
Trains of recently launched Starlink satellites provided a new, conspicuous source of misidentification. The European synthesis links the 2020 reporting peak to these satellite sightings. Increased reporting does not by itself show an increase in unexplained phenomena; lockdown conditions and public attention can also affect reporting.
EuroUFO · 2019–2023 · June 2024 edition ↗ · Frederick Delaere · Starlink & lockdown, 2020 ↗
GEIPAN: cases are not the same as reports
France's GEIPAN, within CNES, publishes investigated cases and classifications: A (identified), B (probably identified), C (insufficient information), and D (unidentified after investigation). Category C must not be counted as established unexplained phenomena. Its cumulative archive and changing classifications are not a directly comparable annual European series.
Reading the barometer
- A report is not necessarily a distinct event: one event can generate multiple submissions.
- National groups do not use identical definitions, intake channels or investigation standards.
- Do not add GEIPAN archive cases to the network totals: time windows and units differ, and collections may overlap.
- Missing values are not zero. These are published snapshots, not a live feed or a population-adjusted ranking.
Public opinion is a different measure
Belief surveys, witness surveys and reports submitted to an organisation measure different things. No harmonised European opinion-survey series is included here; a percentage without a dated sample, question and method would be misleading.
Sources & data provenance
Sources checked 25 October 2026
Explore the context
FAQ
How many UFO sightings are there in Europe?
There is no complete European count. Published network totals describe reports received by participating groups, not every sighting in Europe.
Does a rise in reports mean more unexplained UAP?
No. Satellites, media attention, collection methods and reporting participation can all change the number of submissions.