In case your Halloween turns out to be the dawn of a full-fledged zombie attack, head to the place most likely to survive such a predicament: Boston.
According to a study done by CareerBuilder and labor data source EMSI, the capital of Massachusetts tops a list of the 53 largest U.S. metropolitan areas that are best equipped to deal with a night with the living dead. Starting with the assumption that zombies will arise from a flesh-eating virus – but, of course – the Zombie Apocalypse Index scores cities on eight different factors, ranging from its ability to defend itself against a virus, its capabilities of finding a cure, to whether there’d be enough food to outlast an epidemic and, in the worst case scenario, a zombie siege.
Boston scored the highest for its “cure score”, no surprise considering the city has been receiving the most dollars for medical research funding and has one of the highest active physicians per capita in the country. The study also points to a reasonable population density (read: fewer zombies) and good resources to combat the hungry horde.
Other cities that ranked high on the index included Salt Lake City, Utah (which was deemed a very good place to contain the spread of the virus), and Columbus, Ohio, which has a robust wholesale goods industry that will provide ample food.
The city least likely to win World War Z? That would be New York City, owing to its incredibly high population density, therefore increasing contamination rates exponentially and making the race to find a cure that much more cumbersome. The states of California and Florida also don’t fare too well in their zombie-fighting infrastructure.
