Doomsday prepper statistics

Political unrest with North Korea and Iran, as well as hurricanes and other natural disasters, is leading many Americans to prepare for an apocalyptic doomsday through spending on survival items, home renovations, escape vehicles and more.

In the last 12 months, roughly 20% of Americans — or about 52 million people — say they spent money preparing or spent money on survival materials, according to a recent Finder survey.

How many Americans are prepared for survival?

In addition to the roughly 20% that bought survival supplies in the last year, a further 35% of American adults (89 million) say they didn’t need to hit the stores because their homes already include survival items at the ready for an emergency.

Adding up the numbers, that’s roughly 55% of American adults (141 million adults) who are prepping for the end times. Paranoid much?

• Infographic
• Data table

How much do our preppers spend?

Forget booby traps and escape chutes. Saving money is the No. 1 way people prepare for emergencies, with nearly 13% of Americans saying they’ve socked away some $1,940 into an emergency fund in the last 12 months.

Other big-ticket ways we’re preparing for the worst:

• Home renovations — 7.43% of Americans spent an average of $1,701 renovating or making additions to their home.
• Means of evacuation — 4.18% of Americans spent an average of $1,398 preparing ways to escape, such as buying a car or boat.
• Medical expenses — 6.29% of Americans spent an average of $1,003 toward insurance premiums, doctor visits, prescriptions, assistive devices and more.

• Infographic
• Data table

How does preparing differ between men and women?

Men are more likely to prep for doomsday than women, with 25% of men admitting to buying survival materials in the past 12 months. Compare that to the 18% of women who admit to the same.

If we include those who’ve had their acts together by stockpiling ahead of time, the gap is about the same, with just more than 60% of men prepping for doomsday versus about 52% of women.

Who’s spending more?

While men may be preparing for more, women outspend men in almost all areas. Women put more money into savings, home renovations, means of evacuation, medical expenses, donations and insurance, while men outspend women on self-defense, survival kits and survival courses.

Generation prep

Who do you picture in a tinfoil hat getting ready for the end of days? Not likely a millennial, and yet millennials make up the generation most equipped for doomsday.

Some 30% of millennials say they bought items in the last 12 months in preparation for disaster. Not only that, a further 35% admit to already having those supplies on hand. Other generations outweighed by disaster preppers include Gen X (53%) and Gen Z (52%).

Which generation spends the most preparing for the worst?

Baby boomers spent the most on home renovations, shelling out an average of $6,111 getting their homes ready for the end of days. Gen X donated the most ahead of disaster at an average of $1,612. And millennials squirreled away the most into savings at an average of $2,066.

Methodology

• Methodology

  Our data is based on an online survey of 2,398 US adults born between 1928 to 2002 commissioned by Finder and conducted by Pureprofile in January 2020. Participants were paid volunteers.

  We assume the 2,398 participants in our survey represent the US population of 254.7 million Americans who are at least 18 years old according to the July 2019 US Census Bureau estimate. This assumption is made at the 95% confidence level with a 2% margin of error.

  The survey asked people whether they’d spent money preparing for emergencies in the previous 12 months and how much they spent in 11 categories:

  • Survival kits
  • Home renovations
  • Insurance
  • Put into savings
  • Donated it
  • Medical expenses
  • Means of evacuation (e.g., car, boat)
  • Survival courses
  • Self-defense (classes or weaponry)
  • Didn’t spend any money
  • Other (please specify)

  We based average calculations of spending on participants who spent in that particular category and spent for doomsday preparation only — for example, to calculate the mean amount spent on home renovation, we did not include the 74.90% of participants who selected that they do not spend on emergency/survival preparation and the 11.86% who responded “$0” for amount spent on home renovation.

  To avoid skewing the data, we also excluded extreme outliers from our calculations.

  We define generations by birth year according to the Pew Research Center’s generational guidelines:

  • Gen Z — 1997–2002
  • Millennials — 1981–1996
  • Gen X — 1965–1980
  • Baby Boomers — 1946–1964
  • The Silent Generation — 1928–1945

Previous surveys

• 2017 survey

  More than 68 million American doomsday preppers are estimated to have purchased survival gear in light of recent political events or natural disasters.

  Political unrest with North Korea, as well as hurricanes and other natural disasters, are a concern for many Americans gone out to purchase survival gear in preparation for doomsday.

  We recently commissioned a survey of 2,000 Americans, conducted by global research provider Pureprofile, and found that an estimated 68 million–plus Americans — more than 1 in 4 — have purchased survival gear on the back of recent political events or natural circumstances beyond our control.

  How many Americans are prepared for survival?

  More than 160 million American adults (65.45%) are estimated to have either recently purchased survival gear or, interestingly, are already in possession of survival gear because they always keep them on hand. The remaining 85 million (34.55%) are not preparing for the end of the world as we know it. Of those who report prepping, 36.35% spent up to $400 on survival kits in the past 12 months.

  • Visual
  • Data

  Breakdown of preparation	%
  Always has survival items on hand in case of an emergency	37.60%
  Doesn't spend money on preparation	34.55%
  Has purchased survival materials only because of recent natural disasters	16.35%
  Has purchased survival materials due to political events and natural disasters	6.35%
  Has purchased survival materials only because of political events	5.15%

  How much do our preppers spend?

  Our survey found that an estimate of more than 1 in 4 American adults spent up to $2,000 on home renovations to prepare for withstanding emergencies.

  Other areas in which our preppers spent money to keep emergencies at bay include:

  • Insurance — 39.40% spent up to $2,000
  • Donations — 32.55% donated up to $400
  • Medical expenses — 37.65% spent up to $5,000

  Perhaps as a result of the colossal amount Americans are spending on emergencies, we estimate that nearly half of American adults have squirreled up to $5,000 into savings to prepare for an emergency.

  What is the gender breakdown of our preppers?

  Let’s take a look at the demographics of those estimated 68 million American preppers who’ve recently purchased survival gear.

  Of those surveyed, 26.96% of women have recently purchased survival gear for either political or natural disaster reasons compared with 28.77% of men. But many people haven’t purchased survival gear because they always have it on hand — including 39.51% of the women and 35.61% of the men.

  Women are slightly less likely than men to wing it in the event of a disaster, with 33.53% of women reporting they’ve resisted dropping money on preparation, compared with 35.61% of men. To prepare for a potential doomsday, an estimated 38.24% of women and 34.39% of men spent up to $400 on survival kits in the past 12 months.

  	Female	Male
  Always has survival items on hand in case of an emergency	39.51%	35.61%
  Doesn’t spend money on preparation	33.53%	35.61%
  Has purchased survival materials due to recent political events and natural disasters	5.59%	7.14%
  Has purchased survival materials solely because of recent natural disasters	16.96%	15.71%
  Has purchased survival materials solely because of political events	4.41%	5.92%

  Source: finder.com

  When it comes to preparing for emergencies, men appear to be slightly more proactive than women, with an estimated 45.39% of women and 47.55% of men putting up to $5,000 into savings in the past 12 months. On the flip side, women seem to be the more generous gender, with 35.59% donating up to $400, compared with only 29.39% of males who’ve done the same.

  Generation

  Millennials lead the way in preparing for the worst, with 38.49% recently purchasing survival gear either because of political or natural disaster headlines. This is followed by Gen Xers at 31.40% and baby boomers at 17.31%.

  From looking at those stats, it might appear as if baby boomers are the least prepared for a doomsday disaster. But perhaps the reason they haven’t recently purchased any survival gear is that a lot of them have long been preparing for it: Baby boomers lead the way (41.28%) in terms of those who haven’t recently purchased survival gear because they already have it on hand. They’re followed by Gen Xers at 37.07% and millennials at 32.79%.

  Even so, when it comes to prepping overall, baby boomers might not be as prepared as other generations, with 41.41% saying they don’t spend any money on prepping. Meanwhile, 31.53% of Gen Xers and 28.72% of millennials would be unprepared in the face of a disaster scenario.

  In the past 12 months, millennials (48.07%) are more than twice as likely than baby boomers (23.57%) to have spent up to $400 on survival kits. Gen Xers come in at 41.42%.

  	Baby boomer	Gen X	Millennial
  Always has survival items on hand in case of an emergency	41.28%	37.07%	32.79%
  Doesn’t spend money on preparation	41.41%	31.53%	28.72%
  Has purchased survival materials due to political events and recent natural disasters	4.13%	8.18%	6.92%
  Has purchased survival materials solely because of recent natural disasters	11.45%	17.28%	22.40%
  Has purchased survival materials solely because of political events	1.73%	5.94%	9.16%

  Source: finder.com

  How is each generation spending on emergencies?

  Compared with other generations, a smaller proportion of baby boomers appears to spend money on emergencies — whether in preparation for survival or as a reaction to headlines. Hands down, millennials lead the way in spending on home renovations, insurance, savings, donations and medical expenses.

  	Baby boomer	Gen X	Millennial
  Up to $2,000 on home renovations	18.24%	30.21%	32.38%
  Up to $2,000 on insurance	33.82%	40.63%	46.03%
  Up to $5,000 put into savings	38.75%	48.02%	55.80%
  Donated up to $400	26.90%	32.59%	41.14%
  Up to $5,000 on medical expenses	32.76%	39.45%	42.36%

  Source: finder.com

  Household income

  Perhaps unsurprisingly, the likelihood of someone spending money on survival gear appears to increase with household income. Of those with a household income of up to $25,000 a year, an estimated 2 in 5 (40.43%) won’t spend any money on survival gear. In comparison, only 1 in 4 (24.59%) people with a household income of $100,000 to $150,000 didn’t spend any money on survival gear.

  What is the emergency money going toward?

  We break down the proportion of each household income group that spent money on survival kits, home renovations, insurance, savings, donations or medical expenses.

  Household income	Survival kits	Home renovations	Insurance	Savings	Donations	Medical expenses
  $0 to $25,000	34.26%	20.00%	32.77%	37.23%	25.11%	33.19%
  $25,001 to $50,000	40.76%	28.32%	42.66%	48.88%	37.31%	38.17%
  $50,001 to $75,000	41.98%	36.08%	47.17%	58.49%	42.69%	43.63%
  $75,001 to $100,000	45.38%	37.82%	50.84%	66.81%	47.06%	44.54%
  $100,001 to $150,000	42.08%	39.34%	47.54%	61.75%	50.82%	39.89%

  Source: finder.com

  • We calculated figures and percentages based on a survey of 2,000 American adults commissioned by finder.com and conducted by global research provider Pureprofile in October 2017.

For media inquiries:

Allan Givens
Public Relations Manager
203-818-2928
allan.givens@finder.com

Nicole Gallina
Communications Coordinator
347-677-4931
nicole.gallina@finder.com