There is another cultural bias at place: Latin Americans will almost never report anything to authorities and have far poorer non-gov organizations. That may explain why so few reports despite being deep into American and ufo culture.
It may just be where I lived, but talks about aliens and UFOs were somewhat common in Brazil, specially among the poorest working class people. I heard them all the time from growing up all the way to working with patients at the hospital.
English speaking guy can only find UFO reports in English speaking nations. Though it is interesting to see what would happen if one made an effort to see if Japan or China has such reports called by another name
You’ve looked at limited data and come to a bad conclusion. ‘Garbage in, garbage out’. Look at wider data sets that cover the planet, not just US ones.
I suspect a decline in religion is a factor.
1. We ascribe weird sightings as UFOs vs. supernatural.
2. Humans like to believe in something greater than ourselves. Without strong religious faith, you'll be more apt to believe in UFOs (or Templar-esque conspiracies).
Key thing here is "reported". Both Russia and China (at the very least) have their own UFO/UAPs investigation/surveillance programs, despite hardly any reports, compared to the US.
