State report · National rank #37 of 50
Indiana
Indiana has the food, water, roads, and industrial base needed for long-term zombie survival. Its farmland, livestock, freshwater access, smaller cities, manufacturing capacity, and central location could support organized survivor communities. The catch is that the same road network makes movement easy for everyone, including infected populations, while flat terrain, limited natural barriers, Indianapolis congestion, tornadoes, flooding, and dependence on mechanized agriculture reduce its defensive strength.
Personal assessment
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Indiana scored three times
A state that handles shamblers can get erased by sprinters. Here is how Indiana performs under each outbreak model.
Slow zombies reward distance, local food, water, defensive terrain and the luxury of time. Indiana begins with about 6,973,333 people, but its real advantage is the resource-to-population ratio once you leave the main cities. USDA lists 14.5 million acres across 51,500 farm operations.
Fast zombies turn transportation into a timing problem. A six-lane highway is useful until six lanes stop moving. Indianapolis sits at the centre of a major interstate network, which is excellent until everyone uses it simultaneously.
Yes, we know they're not technically zombies. This is about keeping a settlement alive for years rather than surviving one bad afternoon. Indiana's numbers are not stored food — they are a functioning food-production base, which is exactly what a long collapse rewards.
What helps
- Mostly rolling to flat agricultural land, with wooded hills, caves and river terrain in the south
- Ohio and Wabash rivers, reservoirs, groundwater and abundant streams
- 14.5 million acres in farm operations across 51,500 farms
- 820,000 cattle and calves
- 4.45 million hogs, 20 million turkeys and 4.596 billion pounds of milk in 2025, plus major corn and soybean production
- 27,837 MW of net summer capacity in 2024 with a large thermal-generation base and growing renewables
- Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane, Camp Atterbury, Grissom Air Reserve Base and Indiana National Guard forces
What hurts
- Population corridors and limited defensive terrain
- Tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, flooding, winter storms, heat and occasional drought
- Rural isolation can trade safety for thinner medical and repair capacity
- Major transport corridors become liabilities when everyone moves at once
Personal assessment
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Indiana's zombie superpowers
Mostly rolling to flat agricultural land, with wooded hills, caves and river terrain in the south, define how infected move, where people can hide, and which roads become mandatory. The best refuge is not simply the remotest place — it is where terrain plus water plus food plus energy plus access overlap.
1 · Food
Indiana's 14.5 million farm acres support enormous corn, soybean, hog, turkey and dairy production — a perfect 10 on both agricultural factors.
2 · Road redundancy
There are many ways to move through rural Indiana before mass evacuation begins.
3 · Southern terrain
The hills, forests and caves of southern Indiana are a real upgrade over the open central and northern parts of the state.
4 · Freshwater
Major rivers, groundwater and reservoirs provide solid water depth.
The catch
Too open, and one central hub
Too open
Large areas provide few hard natural barriers, and the state scores just 5 on both terrain and wilderness.
Corridor exposure
Indianapolis sits at the centre of a major interstate network, which is excellent until everyone uses it simultaneously.
Severe storms
Tornadoes and flooding remain part of the survival plan rather than an occasional inconvenience.
The framework
25 survival factors, scored 1–10
Every state is measured on the same 25 factors. Weighting shifts by scenario — terrain matters more against sprinters, agriculture matters more in a long collapse.
Tactics
What works, by scenario
| Strategy | Walking Dead | World War Z | Last of Us |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rural farm or ranch with independent water | Excellent | Very good if reached early | Excellent |
| Small agricultural town | Very good | Good | Excellent |
| Remote site with no food system | Good early | Very good for isolation | Poor long-term |
| Major highway evacuation | Good early, bad late | Terrible late | Poor after collapse |
| Major metro shelter | Poor | Terrible | Poor |
| Distributed renewable power | Very good | Good | Excellent |
| Hunting and fishing supplement | Very good | Good | Very good |
| One-road refuge | Risky | Risky | Risky |
Geography
Where to be
Southern Indiana hill country
Wooded hills, water and lower density create the state's best refuge.
- The only real terrain in the state
- Caves and forest cover
- Ohio River water access
- Smaller roads away from interstates
Hoosier National Forest fringe
Forest cover and terrain help, with nearby small towns.
Rural east-central counties away from interstates
Excellent farms, but much flatter terrain.
Where not to be
Indianapolis metro
Central population and interstate concentration.
The I-65 Louisville–Indianapolis corridor
Too much movement in one line.
Flat suburban counties near major metros
No distance and little terrain.
Verdict
74 out of 100 · Grade C · Rank #37
Indiana has the food, water, roads, and industrial base needed for long-term zombie survival. Its farmland, livestock, freshwater access, smaller cities, manufacturing capacity, and central location could support organized survivor communities. The catch is that the same road network makes movement easy for everyone, including infected populations, while flat terrain, limited natural barriers, Indianapolis congestion, tornadoes, flooding, and dependence on mechanized agriculture reduce its defensive strength.
Walking Dead 81. World War Z 62. Last of Us 79.
Method & sources
Where the numbers come from
The Zombie Survival Index is a fictional entertainment ranking that uses real public data as its inputs. Every state is scored on the same 25 factors under three outbreak models, and the overall number blends those results. All fifty states have been assessed and normalised against the same national scoring set.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2025 Population Estimates and QuickFacts
- USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2025 State Agriculture Overview
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, State Electricity Profile
- State water-resource and environmental agencies
- State emergency-management agencies
- U.S. Department of Defense and National Guard installation sources
- State wildlife, hunting and fishing agencies
- NOAA and state climatology and hazard sources