Southwest Florida often lands on “best” lists for its beaches, fine dining and luxury resorts. And now it can add another reason: UFOs.
Naples and Cape Coral are in the top 10 for UFO sightings in Florida. The National UFO Reporting Center or NUFORC gathers such data.
National attention on UFOs has shifted in recent years, especially after the US government in the past decade has released reports about investigating them.
Here’s what the UFO list says.
Where Florida cities ranked
Naples was ranked No. 6, with Cape Coral coming in at No. 9. Fort Myers made the list at 19th.
Here’s the full list with the number of sightings submitted to NUFORC since 1995:
Orlando ― 405
Miami ― 373
Jacksonville ― 304
Tampa ― 250
Sarasota ― 152
Naples ― 134
St. Petersburg ― 132
Cape Coral ― 117
Fort Lauderdale ― 107
Pensacola ― 105
West Palm Beach ― 98
Ocala ― 96
Port St. Lucie ― 96
Bradenton ― 94
Clearwater ― 85
St. Augustine ― 82
Gainesville ― 82
Boca Raton ― 82
Fort Myers ― 77
Lakeland ― 74
Other Southwest Florida cities on the list include Captiva (22), Bonita Springs (18) and Fort Myers Beach (11).
Where did UFO date come from
The National UFO Reporting Center is a non-governmental, nonprofit that formed in 1974 and documents UFO or UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon) sightings.
Anyone can visit the site to add a UFO sighting or read about others. The website is nuforc.org.
Is the truth out there?
If Neapolitans are seeing UFOs or UAPs, they’re not reporting them to local authorities.
“I am surprised to hear about being in the top 10 among Florida cities,” said Naples Police Lt. Bryan McGinn, the agency’s public information officer, in an email.
“I have not heard of us getting any calls for service related to UFO/UAP sightings.”
UFO experts have said about 5% of all sightings are unexplainable, a number often cited by investigative journalist Leslie Kean. She’s authored books on UFOs and written many stories about them in recent decades.
Kean’s 2017 New York Times story with two other co-authors was groundbreaking, as it reported for the first time on a $22 million US Department of Defense program that investigated UFOs
Where were most recent sighting in Florida
Someone in Port Charlotte reported in April 2026 on the NUFORC site seeing “lights dropping out of sky as if entering our atmosphere they were dropping down as light faded as they got closer to horizon.”
Living in Florida with so many rocket launches, many reports of UFOs of course are just that when you see the videos and photos on the site and see the date matched a launch. And drones continue to become more and more popular.
Others on NUFORC’s site will speculate on what the UFO or UAP was. The UFO reported in the Naples Daily News in March 2025 lists “Balloon?” with no explanation.
A black shapeshifting object hovered above Green Cove Springs along the St. Johns River, about 30 miles south of Jacksonville on March 22, 2025, in daylight (many sightings are at night). The object moved slowly with no sound in a southeast direction then disappeared.
Dave Osborn is the regional features editor of the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. Contact him at dosborn@usatodayco.com and follow him on Instagram @lacrossewriter.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Exclusive: 2 SW Florida cities top 10 for UFO sightings
Reporting by Dave Osborn, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Naples Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Dave Osborn, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News | USA TODAY Network
