Where is the best place to live in the US during and after the apocalypse?
While trying to figure out the answer, I’ve looked inside of prepping blogs to find a consensus for the criteria known to be essential for any place to survive in during the wake of such an event. That is, any event that can potentially destabilize society to the point of no return to normal any time soon. It will be important for you to have whatever supplies you need ready ahead of time before you travel to your destination. So start getting ready.
That being said, the criteria for the best area to survive in can be broken into three categories:
1. Human factors, 2. Natural factors, and 3. Economic factors
Human Factors:
- Low population density (40 people per sq. mile or less)
- Distance to major/minor cities (50+ miles away)
- Distance to military bases (50+ miles away)
- Distance to nuclear power plants (100+ miles away)
- Distance to interstate highways
- Low poverty rate
- Low violent crime rate
Natural Factors:
- Easy access to fresh water
- Abundance of wild game
- Low natural disaster risk
- Dense forest cover
- Adequate soil textures
- Adequate rainfall
- Low drought risk
Economic Factors:
- Higher job growth
- High abundance of non-renewable natural resources available for extraction (coal, oil, natural gas, metals and minerals, lumber, etc.
- Higher educated citizens
Now that we know what to look for, I’ll narrow down a map of the U.S. by one category at a time using other maps I have compiled. The “Orange” counties are those disqualified, which will then become and remain dark gray when the next factor is applied. For simplicity reasons, we’ll focus on the continental U.S. But before starting I will say that the state of Hawaii is probably a fairly safe place to be considering its isolation, moderate climate, and the Polynesians have managed living there by themselves for millennia.
The first most important thing is population density or lack of it. This is common sense since you don’t wanna be around massive numbers of unprepared people when SHTF. Ideally anywhere under 40 people per square mile is best. The blue shaded counties are where to go.
Next is proximity to major and minor cities. A distance of at least 50 miles away is best.
We are now isolated from any major threats from large populations and groups of people. But, there is still the possibility of martial law being put into effect. So it’s best to keep our distance from military bases.
And nuclear reactors, in case of meltdowns occuring during grid failures.
The last places to “watch out” from are areas with already high poverty and crime rates. When they no longer can depend on Uncle Sam for their existence, it will get ugly. Avoiding these areas may potentially eliminate our options in the Southern states but I would like to keep them open for now for climate reasons. We’ll use a 25% poverty rate limit for the south and 20% everywhere else. (The south includes WV, southern MO, and eastern half of OK and TX)
I won’t make any exception for violent crime rates. Those will be applied evenly across the board. Lighter counties are safer.
We are now looking at a map of what are probably the “safest” counties in the United States. But now that the potential for human threat is minimized, we must figure out where is the best place to settle down based on what resources there will be available. The most important thing is easy access to fresh water always within close proximity.
Next in my opinion is wild game abundance, which you need for food during winters and harsh growing seasons, and for protein in general.
You wanna be safe from natural disasters such as tornadoes and hurricanes. Given recent events I think it’s safe to eliminate the lone county remaining in Florida.
This is a potentially controversial assumption, but the amount of forest cover over an area may be a good indicator for how much local resources there will be for us to utilize for our way of life. Everything from ecosystems that support wild game and edible plants to having plentiful amounts of lumber if needed (especially in the winter). Forests are just as useful as farmland. At least 25% forest cover is beneficial.
We need to grow food. This requires a number of things. Most important of them are good soil textures and rainfall. Drought-prone areas must be avoided. Warm climate isn’t necessary and depending on your environment you can expect to have different lengths of growing seasons. I will subtract all these variables all at once from the next map.
The best soil textures are ones with a close to even mixture of sand, silt, and clay, together known as loam. This mixture holds nutrients best. Anywhere on the scale from sandy loam to clay loam will work for most vegetables, fruits, wheat, nuts, and other produce.
This map is just for reference. Knowing your plant hardiness zones is key to scheduling your growing seasons with which types of produce you can expect to grow based on the average climate of your zone. Generally speaking, your options get wider the more south you go with more varieties of produce able to grow in warmer climates. There is also the potential for yielding not just one but two or more crop yields in a year with longer growing seasons in warm climates.
Rain should be 20 inches or more a year. So anything from dark green (40″+) all the way to light orange (20″) is good. Of course avoid regions that most often experience drought.
With all agricultural factors considered, this is what’s left on the map.
A variety of choices are left spanning different parts of the US. These are places that have everything we “need” to survive. You can perhaps at this point choose to pick whichever is closest to where you currently live. It is arguable that depending on the nature of the apocalyptic event the local economy may or may not make a difference on your quality of life. But let’s see where factoring it leads us.
A strong local economy in a rural area can indicate the presence of a stable natural resource based economy be it agriculture, mining, logging, etc. These resources can potentially be very important for the economic growth of the area and in the rebuilding of other economies through the exporting of these resources. It’s best to pick the areas with current stable job growth with high natural resource reserves.
Areas with 2.5%+ job growth with heavy natural resource reserves and industries:
The culture of where you live can be rather important. To borrow from one commenter, “You need a community. No matter how much of a bad ass you are you have to sleep sometime. It is great to consider things like natural resources and growing conditions, but you also need people with the knowledge to put those attributes to work for the community.” Areas with a high concentration of college graduates can indicate the presence of a college or of other skilled service providers which can potentially contribute to the needs of a community in areas such as healthcare, engineering, agriculture, etc. Areas with a population of at least 20% college graduates would be good.
We have 5 finalists:
Archuleta Co., CO
Hinsdale Co., CO
San Juan Co., CO
Hubbard Co., MN
Highland Co., VA
At this point, let’s eliminate by comparing.
For extra isolation, eliminate Highland County, VA.
For better access to water, rain, and wild game, eliminate Archuleta County, CO.
For a place with less poverty and crime, stay out of San Juan County, CO.
At this point the decision for me comes down to the potential for future economic growth and a population that is more wilderness survival conscious, which leaves us our winner….
Hinsdale County, Colorado
I welcome any suggestions from you for additions, corrections, or edits to help accurately improve the results I have found and will perhaps make updates to everything based on them in the future
MUST WATCH BELOW!!!
Food Confiscation: How to protect your food stores and production from government confiscation
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(Step by Step)The Only Video You Need to Become Self-Sufficient on ¼ Acre
Preppgroup 
I don’t see a key for the grey-orange-black “companion” maps . . .
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That’s the running result of counties knocked out of, and still in the running for, being the winner in this comparison. Black is a flat “no”, orange has a few strikes against it, and grey is the remaining potentials.
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I read another similar distillation with fewer criteria some time ago that came up with Jackson Co., FL as the winner. You might want to see if there are mitigating factors. Also I have seen Morrisville, VT touted as the best place to live, though not in a SHTF context. And VT, once the bastion of freedom and individuality, has become a communist hell hole.
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Jackson county isn’t bad but it is services poor. If you can get on year round water, then it is a good choice..
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Now look up the property values in Hinsdale County, CO. Try Zillow and see what you get.
(Hint: Sticker shock)
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Singe college graduates are now like AOC… They’ve been taught Socialism, 500 genders and poor game theory with ZERO Logic or Civics education. (She has a degree in Economics and doesn’t know a damn thing about Economics), I don’t see much point in College Graduates being a contributing factor. Redo the map for Trade Skill Education. Arkansas near Texas will most likely win, or somewhere in Texas or Wyoming.
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Wilkes County NC….God, moonshine, mountains, lots of guns, water, wild game, fish, land so far and wide, low population, chickens, good people, etc….God moved us here.
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Maybe the government will divide up American into have and have-not districts like in The Hunger Games.
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But now that this county wins, it has to be eliminated since everyone will now go there.
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Now what? Just die.
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uhhh….live on boat, can drop sail and get away…no need for all the other BS factors
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Yeah, the inland waters off the coast of British Columbia Canada seem to be the best bet…if “it” goes down it won’t matter about the borders…just watch out for pirates…lol
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Really?!? The US is a giant country with wide open spaces, an abundance of resources, settled by people with nothing more than what they could carry on their back and you have managed to convince yourself that there are only a handful of counties that a person could survive in. Thanks for the laugh!
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How much “community” are you going to have where the population of the ENTIRE COUNTY is 788 people? You also know you’re crazy over-estimating the risk of tornados, right, even in areas where they occur?
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I’ve spent a lot of time in Colorado including in Hinsdale County. One of the more temperate (i.e. low elevation) places, and probably the largest city, in Hinsdale is Lake City. Average Lake City low temp. in January is < 1F and average high temp in January is 8,000 ft and most farm crops grow at max. 6,000, maybe 7,000, ft), very few things will grow there. Which is why farmers in the area pretty much only grow alfalfa (so ranching is possible but it takes a lot of acreage per cow). Like all of Colorado, the county is severely over-hunted (located in DAU E-25, which according to the 2022 Colorado Wildlife report, issued 2,200 licenses with 800 confirmed kills – so ~ 1 in 3 hunters can harvest 1 elk/deer/pronghorn … per YEAR, extend hunting season and remove the hunting restrictions and soon it will drop to 0 per year), so don’t count on big game to keep you alive (for that you will have FAR more success in most of Montana or Wyoming, which are just overflowing with deer).
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I’ve spent a lot of time in Colorado including in Hinsdale County. One of the more temperate (i.e. low elevation) places, and probably the largest city, in Hinsdale is Lake City. Average Lake City low temp. in January is ~ 1F and average high temp in January is ~ 22F (just north of there is Gunnison county, which is the coldest county in Colorado). This means all water will be frozen all the time in the winter, even accessing a river flow will require drilling through thick ice. The growing season is very short – 4 months at most – and combined with the very high elevation (Lake City sits at > 8,000 ft and most farm crops grow at max. 6,000, maybe 7,000, ft), very few things will grow there. Which is why farmers in the area pretty much only grow alfalfa (so ranching is possible but it takes a lot of acreage per cow). Like all of Colorado, the county is severely over-hunted (located in DAU E-25, which according to the 2022 Colorado Wildlife report, issued 2,200 licenses with 800 confirmed kills – so ~ 1 in 3 hunters can harvest 1 elk/deer/pronghorn … per YEAR, extend hunting season and remove the hunting restrictions and soon it will drop to 0 per year), so don’t count on big game to keep you alive (for that you will have FAR more success in most of Montana or Wyoming, which are just overflowing with deer).
[ NOTE TO ADMIN: a less than sign screwed up the prior post, fixed in this one ]
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Hmmm…Hinsdale County is at almost 9,000 feet in elevation, with much of it significantly higher. The growing season would be around 90 days in a good year with the risk of frost or freeze at any time. In addition, anyone needing any sort of “modern day item” such as medication, building materials, clothing, etc would be faced with a round trip drive of about 120 miles. Yes, it is beautiful, but only the hardiest would survive winter if there is no electricity or fuel for travel. Remote, yes. Realistic, no. Research the true story of Alfred Packer in the late 1800s.
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Won’t say where mine is. Still a secret.
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Let me guess… You’re a Realtor in Hinsdale County, Colorado, right?
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I appreciate the maps and analysis, but all in blue states?????
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Hawaii would not be on the list of desirable places because it is over-populated now, and far from being self-sufficient for food production. Any disruption of their imports from the mainland would be a disaster. And everything is extremely expensive, not even counting recent inflation.
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OK, only one county qualifies out of over 3000…?!?! Take it from someone who teaches data analysis, your criteria were a bit too strict. Counties were classified as either acceptable or unacceptable. It could have been made a lot more useful if the counties had been graded, say on a scale from 0 to 100. I would be happy to run the analysis in Excel if I could have the data. I don’t have the GIS software to turn it into a map, but perhaps Excel can do this too; not sure.
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Glad to see my county and state didn’t make the list. Too many socialists heading my way now. Last thing I want is to be on a list that left wing nut cases will use to relocate to or to send criminal aliens to.
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