More Americans believe in UFOs than accept evolution or deep Earth age.

Evidence

The poll numbers can vary wildly and frustratingly. In 1997, a CNN/Time poll showed that a whopping 80 percent of the adult population believed the government was hiding “knowledge of the existence of extraterrestrial life forms.” In 2015, a YouGov survey found that 54 percent of the adult population believed that alien life exists, while 30 percent were convinced, in their words, that “extra-terrestrial intelligent life has already contacted us but the government has covered it up.” According to the Chapman University Survey of American Fears that same year, 42.6 percent of respondents thought the government was concealing what it knows about alien encounters. The Chapman survey noted that more Americans believe in UFOs than believe in natural selection or that the earth is 4.5 billion years old. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 825

Categorization

• CANDY: A great trivia/factoid: more Americans believe in UFOs than in natural selection or a 4.5-billion-year-old Earth.
• XREF: connects to: Nearly half of Americans have long believed UFOs actually exist. — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 404; UFO believers are a large, stable, mainstream slice of the American public — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 408; Majorities of Americans believe the government conceals UFO knowledge — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 409