The Safest States for a Zombie Apocalypse

The global pandemic has many people thinking about viral outbreaks — even fictional ones. Not that we’re expecting the undead to start walking the earth, but at Safety.com, we like to be prepared for anything. For fun, we analyzed 11 key data points to find out which U.S. state would be the safest during the zombie apocalypse.

We looked at the following stats when determining our rankings:

• Population
• Population density
• Water percentage
• GDP Per Capita
• Weapons per person
• Healthcare
• Airports per square mile
• Vehicles per person
• Hospitals per person
• Military Bases Per Square Mile
• Renewable Energy

We chose these streams for a variety of reasons, but predominantly because we believed they were the most important factors to take into consideration when preparing for a zombie attack. We also chose the most common type of zombie: your traditional shambling, mindless horde.

Through our research, we discovered the safest states to be in during the apocalypse and the states where it may be tricker to survive.

Our research showed that Rhode Island would be the safest state in America during the zombie apocalypse. This state claimed the top spot in two of our data points: “airports per square mile” and “military bases per square mile”. Two things that we think would be highly important to not only escape the zombies but to attack too. However, Rhode Island did have some key weaknesses. With just 4,784 registered weapons in the whole state, your chances of finding one are slim. Add in a very high population density and it’s probably best to head to the airport and flee rather than stay and fight.

Oregon, despite its thriving cities and beautiful coastline, sadly came in last in our ratings, making it the least safe state to be in during the zombie outbreak. Despite Oregon not coming bottom for any particular category, it scored consistently low and was featured in the latter half of the ranking with an average rank of 32.5 out of 50. Oregon’s main weaknesses were its facilities. This state lacks hospitals, airports and military bases compared to others, making it a much more difficult place to live during the apocalypse. It also struggled in the renewable energy sector too, so power would be cut out fairly quickly.

Based on our data streams, we discovered that Wyoming had the smallest population with just 578,759 people, meaning there are fewer people to infect. With a population density of 1.1, the people of Alaska are spread out enough that they can be confident it’ll take a very long time before they have any zombie troubles. With an impressive 11,000 natural inland lakes, Michigan had the highest water percentage compared to their overall population, meaning they would have easy access to clean water which is vital for staying alive. When it comes to finding a cure, we’re positive every state will be doing their best, but New York is the state most likely to achieve success as they have the highest amount of GDP per capita that could be invested into  important medical research.

Wyoming also topped our charts for the most weapons per person, with 137,346 registered weapons in the state and the lowest population. That means there are more weapons up for grabs for people to defend themselves with. Iowa was the best state for healthcare services whereas South Dakota had the largest number of hospitals per person, with 25 hospitals in a population of 884,659, so they have easier access to medical equipment and facilities, plus more changes of finding a medical professional to include on their team. With 433,363 registered vehicles, Delaware is the best state for accessible travel with at least 0.45 vehicles per person. And, lastly, Kansas had the best ranking for renewable energy, meaning they would have the largest opportunity for continuous power.