How Would NJ Fare In A Zombie Invasion? See The Data

Shuffling legs. Pale faces. Eerie moans.

You've seen the movies (or the potentially scarier sight of people leaving a Jersey Shore club at 6 a.m.). But what if zombies were to really invade the Garden State? Would we persevere, or join their army of the undead?

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Luckily, new data can answer those questions, and we really sank our teeth into it.

A recent study from CanadaSportsBetting.ca analyzed several metrics to determine the survival odds for every U.S. state in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

The study, dubbed The Zombie Apocalypse Survival Index, focused on the following four pillars:

• Vulnerability: Covered population density, urbanization rate, and public transit usage.
• Defense: Covered firearms per 1,000 residents, military bases, and veterans per 100,000.
• Resources: Covered hardware and supply store access plus hospital capacity per 1,000 residents.
• Physicality: Covered obesity rates and average annual temperature (cold winters would slow the undead to a crawl, experts said).

With these factors in mind, the question remains: How would New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the U.S., fare if the dead began to rise?

The short answer is, as one might expect: Not great.

According to the Zombie Apocalypse Survival Index, New Jersey comes in 49th with a 3.93 percent survival probability.

In terms of vulnerability, New Jersey's 1,094 people per square mile and nine percent public transit ridership make it one of the most exposed states in the dataset.

The Garden State's defense index is not much better, with only 12.09 firearms per 1,000 residents, seven military bases, and 2,872 veterans per 100,000 people, according to the study.

New Jersey's resources score is also troubling, with only 187 big-box stores like Costco or Home Depot across the state (0.02 per 1,000 residents) and healthcare capacity of 0.013 per 1,000 residents.

Where we shone, however, was our physicality index. We ranked sixth-best in physicality in the study, with a 27.7 percent obesity rate and an average annual temperature of 52.7°F.

So while there'll be a lot of zombies, not a lot of defensive measures, and even fewer resources, at least New Jerseyans can run away.

But where to run to? According to the study, Wyoming is by far the best state to wait out the zombie apocalypse. With 143 registered firearms per 1,000 residents (the second-highest rate in the entire dataset), very low population density, and minimal public transit use, Wyoming is "basically built for this scenario," the study reads.

And what state to steer clear of? You guessed it, our neighbor New York is the worst state to be in if the dead were to rise, the study finds. Because of the city, the state has the second-highest vulnerability score in the entire dataset, a massive transit-saturated population, and a gun ownership rate that is near the bottom of the U.S. rankings.

"The defense score benefits from 12 military installations, but they cannot compensate for what is essentially a 20-million-person petri dish," the study says. "Get out of the city immediately. You already know this."

Click here to read the entire study, and hope zombies stay a thing of the movies here in the Garden State.