How well would your city survive a zombie apocalypse?
If you’re a fan of The Walking Dead you’ve probably, at one time or another, considered how well you’d fare in a zombie apocalypse.
Where you live would certainly have a major impact on your ability to survive, and with this in mind, and to celebrate Halloween, CareerBuilder's EMSI (Economic Modeling Specialists Intl.) looked into how well the major US cities would cope in the event of an actual zombie outbreak.
To come to its conclusions, the study used a weighted index ranking the 53 largest US metropolitan areas -- each with at least 1 million residents -- based on occupational skills and industry characteristics. (EMSI analyzes labor market data from more than 90 national, state and local employment resources). The index is scored on eight different factors in four categories:
- Ability to defend against the virus.
- Ability to contain the virus.
- Ability to find a cure.
- Ability to outlast the epidemic with an ample food supply.
A standard, flesh-eating virus transmitted via biting or contact with infected blood is assumed.
Here are the full results:
| MSA | Defense Score | Containment Score | Cure Score | Food Score | Total Score | Final Rank |
| Boston, MA | 13.69 | 11.05 | 20 | 3.59 | 48.33 | 1 |
| Kansas City, MO | 23.38 | 10.02 | 4.53 | 3.10 | 41.03 | 2 |
| Salt Lake City, UT | 8.29 | 18.61 | 10.49 | 3.62 | 41.01 | 3 |
| Baltimore, MD | 17.55 | 7.68 | 11.56 | 2.79 | 39.58 | 4 |
| San Diego, CA | 16.44 | 9.89 | 11.69 | 1.41 | 39.43 | 5 |
| Seattle, WA | 9.58 | 17.86 | 8.45 | 1.99 | 37.88 | 6 |
| Denver, CO | 7.82 | 20.03 | 6.39 | 3.58 | 37.82 | 7 |
| Virginia Beach, VA | 22.38 | 10.61 | 2.76 | 1.79 | 37.54 | 8 |
| Hartford, CT | 17.28 | 9.07 | 5.80 | 3.32 | 35.47 | 9 |
| Minneapolis, MN | 17.51 | 8.19 | 5.57 | 3.94 | 35.21 | 10 |
| Indianapolis, IN | 8.73 | 9.39 | 10.79 | 5.01 | 33.92 | 11 |
| Richmond, VA | 14.61 | 11.16 | 4.73 | 3.38 | 33.89 | 12 |
| Grand Rapids, MI | 0.08 | 9.73 | 2.08 | 20 | 31.89 | 13 |
| San Francisco, CA | 6.43 | 8.97 | 14.86 | 1.48 | 31.73 | 14 |
| Portland, OR | 3.71 | 13.41 | 6.35 | 8.01 | 31.48 | 15 |
| Washington, D.C. | 16.55 | 7.96 | 6.80 | 0 | 31.31 | 16 |
| Sacramento, CA | 8.80 | 12.29 | 4.77 | 4.99 | 30.85 | 17 |
| Pittsburgh, PA | 5.98 | 13.38 | 7.26 | 3.60 | 30.22 | 18 |
| San Jose, CA | 5.74 | 15.02 | 8.17 | 1.09 | 30.02 | 19 |
| Raleigh, NC | 7.70 | 12.22 | 4.89 | 4.18 | 28.98 | 20 |
| Orlando, FL | 9.44 | 9.55 | 3.53 | 6.03 | 28.55 | 21 |
| Memphis, TN | 14.07 | 2.96 | 5.15 | 6.26 | 28.43 | 22 |
| Louisville, KY | 11.56 | 6.76 | 2.03 | 8.04 | 28.39 | 23 |
| Cleveland, OH | 10.36 | 4.24 | 8.02 | 5.32 | 27.93 | 24 |
| Birmingham, AL | 9.84 | 6.73 | 5.29 | 5.51 | 27.37 | 25 |
| Oklahoma City, OK | 8.25 | 10.69 | 6.53 | 1.55 | 27.01 | 26 |
| St. Louis, MO | 13.96 | 8.24 | 2.99 | 1.62 | 26.81 | 27 |
| Houston, TX | 6.08 | 15.92 | 2.71 | 1.37 | 26.09 | 28 |
| New Orleans, LA | 13.55 | 8.85 | 2.12 | 1.23 | 25.75 | 29 |
| Phoenix, AZ | 12.81 | 7.39 | 1.96 | 3.44 | 25.59 | 30 |
| Charlotte, NC | 8.65 | 6.12 | 0.50 | 9.78 | 25.06 | 31 |
| Las Vegas, NV | 15.84 | 6.20 | 0.68 | 1.44 | 24.16 | 32 |
| Columbus, OH | 7.88 | 7.59 | 6.03 | 2.50 | 24.01 | 33 |
| Providence, RI | 8.82 | 5.37 | 4.19 | 4.85 | 23.23 | 34 |
| Austin, TX | 5.83 | 12.13 | 4.45 | 0.70 | 23.11 | 35 |
| Cincinnati, OH | 5.46 | 5.63 | 5.16 | 6.62 | 22.87 | 36 |
| Rochester, NY | 5.16 | 4.92 | 3.87 | 8.69 | 22.64 | 37 |
| Nashville, TN | 8.53 | 7.15 | 3.77 | 2.89 | 22.34 | 38 |
| Milwaukee, WI | 6.29 | 7.48 | 4.09 | 3.95 | 21.81 | 39 |
| Dallas, TX | 7.66 | 7.50 | 2.12 | 4.53 | 21.80 | 40 |
| San Antonio, TX | 9.88 | 4.27 | 1.95 | 5.48 | 21.58 | 41 |
| Philadelphia, PA | 8.53 | 1.18 | 7.46 | 3.90 | 21.07 | 42 |
| Jacksonville, FL | 11.40 | 6.04 | 1.63 | 1.27 | 20.33 | 43 |
| Detroit, MI | 2.03 | 14.50 | 2.10 | 1.32 | 19.94 | 44 |
| Chicago, IL | 9.74 | 0.63 | 2.34 | 6.73 | 19.44 | 45 |
| Tucson, AZ | 10.88 | 1.59 | 6.40 | 0.52 | 19.40 | 46 |
| Buffalo, NY | 10.23 | 3.35 | 3.38 | 1.83 | 18.80 | 47 |
| Atlanta, GA | 6.73 | 5.87 | 2.65 | 3.30 | 18.56 | 48 |
| Miami, FL | 12.67 | 1.10 | 1.57 | 2.78 | 18.11 | 49 |
| Riverside, CA | 4.44 | 4.99 | 0 | 7.30 | 16.72 | 50 |
| Los Angeles, CA | 7.37 | 0.68 | 3.89 | 1.70 | 13.65 | 51 |
| Tampa, FL | 6.07 | 2.33 | 2.97 | 1.52 | 12.89 | 52 |
| New York City, NY | 12.44 | -10.08 | 4.33 | 1.99 | 8.69 | 53 |
This is the second year running that CareerBuilder has released its predictions of the cities most (and least likely) to survive a zombie attack. Boston came top again last year, followed by Salt Lake City, Columbus, Baltimore, and Virginia Beach. The Metros least likely to survive a zombie apocalypse were, once again, headed by New York, Tampa, and Los Angeles.
In a separate and equally practical CareerBuilder study, 36 percent of workers said, if they were a zombie, they would feast on their co-workers. Bear that in mind the next time Brad from accounts comes into work looking a little gray.