It’s commonly understood that the events of 2020 took prepping mainstream. Preppers were no longer regarded as weirdo loners as seemingly everyone was stocking extra toilet paper and canned goods in their closets while locked down at home.
But… is that true? I recently chatted with our friend Dr. Chris Ellis, who finished his studies at Cornell University and now runs a disaster cell for the military in Hawaii. Those of you who followed me here from The Prepared might remember his previous studies of prepper demographics, which showed that while preppers veer toward being male and higher earners than average, they’re a much more diverse group than you might think.
FEMA is intensely interested in how many and what kind of people are prepping, and they perform annual surveys to find out, taking input from 21,000 over the past four years.
The last time we covered his research, Dr. Ellis only had FEMA data through 2018. He recently shared preliminary data with us that covers 2019 and 2020. Here are some key takeaways after he spent over 600 hours poring over the data.
Quick Definitions
Instead of prepper, Dr. Ellis uses the term Resilient Citizen, (or RC for short) and it has a specific meaning: someone who has 31 days or more of necessary supplies on hand.
Additionally, he defines two more categories:
Highly Resilient Citizens (HRCs), who have 90 or more days of supplies.
Ultra-Highly Resilient Citizens (UHRCs), who have 97 or more days of supplies.
Something that’s important to note: many of the RCs, HRCs, and UHRCs don’t consider themselves preppers. Rather, they’re people who stock up because they have to, like ranchers living in remote locations.
2020 Didn’t Create More Preppers. But…
If we look at the chart below, there wasn’t a major statistical increase in RCs between 2019 and 2020.
In fact, if anything, the rate slowed:
2017-2018: 0.7% increase in RCs
2018-2019: 0.9% increase in RCs
2019-2020: 0.4% increase in RCs
But if you look at the rate of increase in HRCs, it jumped 1.3% between 2019 and 2020 and the UHRC population jumped 1.5% in that period.
In short: 2020 didn’t increase how many people are preppers, but existing preppers doubled down.
If you’re curious, FEMA compiles its survey in the summer. In 2020, that was peak panic season, with lockdowns, hospitals packed with COVID patients, riots, and a contentious election looming. Yet, it did not spark a massive increase in the overall RC population.
The Most and Least Prepared States
You can click the chart below to see a larger version.
In short, the five most prepared states are:
Montana
Idaho
Alaska
New Hampshire
Maine
The first three shouldn’t come as a shock, but New Hampshire and Maine are a little interesting. However, if you’ve ever been up that way, it’s probably not too surprising. I visited a girlfriend’s family there many years ago, and I was surprised they had wood heat since in Tennesee wood heat means you’re too poor for electricity and this was a wealthy neighborhood. Then the power cut off three times that week, and I realized in the dead of winter that would easily kill you.
The top five least-prepared states?
Washington, D.C. (not a state, I know)
Illinois
New Jersey
Maryland
Rhode Island
D.C. isn’t surprising at all, but the other states are interesting. Outside of Chicago, Illinois is rural and conservative. Surely Rhode Island gets as cold as New Hampshire and Maine in the winter.
Other interesting observations: Texas is near the bottom of the list and my own state of Tennessee is in the lower half. Florida is just above Texas despite being prime hurricane territory. How does your state stack up?
How Much People Prep Depends on What They Worry About
Here’s an interesting factoid: the primary concern of an RC influences how well prepared they are. Those worried about volcanoes have the most days of preparedness, with those concerned about dirty bombs a distant second.
Dr. Ellis and I debated the implications of this data. He suggested that it acts as more of a geographical map than a strong correlation. For instance, people primarily worried about volcanoes likely live in the Pacific Islands or near a place like Yellowstone, where there is already a strong RC population.
However, I’m not so sure. Concerns about dirty bombs probably don’t have a strong geographical element, and if it does, it would likely lean urban. Likewise with widespread disease and — of course — “nuclear urban.” Geography may be part of what we’re seeing, but I don't think it tells the entire story.
People Prep More After Disasters
It shouldn’t be surprising that people are more likely to prep after experiencing a disaster and that those who have experienced disasters have more days of readiness.
Click on the chart to see a larger version, and you’ll spot a couple of trends:
Old people tend to be better prepared. I’m not sure who’s still around who experienced a disaster in 1939, but they’re ready. My grandmother died at the end of 2019 at age 86 and had enough canned goods to last her until age 100. Personally, if I make it to my 80s, I hope to be sitting on a beach in Florida and not still cramming bags of rice in my closet.
Years you would expect big upticks from didn’t produce them. 2000 (Y2K), 2001 (9/11), 2008 (Great Recession), and 2020 are somewhere in the middle.
I think I have a reasonable explanation for this: there’s a big difference between a generalized fear, like Y2K, and personally living through a disaster. 9/11 might have inspired more New Yorkers to prep, but for those of us without a direct connection to the city, 9/11 created a more general sense of dread. That was also the case for 2008. Yeah, the job market sucked but most of us didn’t go bankrupt.
When I think of the events of my life that most inspired me to prep in the first place, it wasn’t 2020 or 2001, it was the ice storm of 1994 that left my family in the cold dark for a week.
Pacific Islanders Love to Prep
Hawaii is the tenth-most prepared state, but Pacific Islanders are the most prepared people by race.

Naturally, you would expect people in Hawaii to be more interested in preparedness: they live on a volcano far away from the mainland. Hawaii was the first target of the Japanese in World War II, and the war was so rough for Hawaii that Spam became a state delicacy. But what’s interesting is that applies to Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders who live on the mainland as well.
Another interesting fact: preparedness among Asians skyrocketed after 2020. Among many other things that year, Asians became targets of violence and harassment, presumably due to the Chinese association with COVID-19.
However, don’t read too much into this. Racial variations in preparedness are slight, and there are some factors that majorly skew the data, like the large number of people who didn’t respond (NA). Also, Dr. Ellis tells me he suspects that many of those who chose “Other” are White.
I tried to be more prepared after the same ice storm you experienced. Also, I had a 12 day power outage in the middle of summer in 2003 after a derecho hit my city and that also prompted me to be better prepared. Finally, living now in Florida and prepping for hurricanes has made me up my game. I am well prepared for emergencies, but maybe not living off the grid for an extended time. I like the term Resilient Citizens.