Texas Zombie Survival Index: 80/100

Personal assessment

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The three tests

Texas scored three times

A state that handles shamblers can get erased by sprinters. Here is how Texas performs under each outbreak model.

Walking DeadThe Walking Dead

87

Excellent — best matchup

Texas gives survivors what Delaware simply cannot: strategic depth. More than 261,000 square miles of land, and once you are past the metro corridors it is ranchland, farmland, desert, forest, plains and remote road. Against walkers, distance matters — and Texas has a lot of distance.

World War ZWorld War Z

71

Good, if you are already moving

Fast zombies expose the weakness: Texas has a lot of Texans. Houston, DFW, Austin, San Antonio and the I‑35 corridor could become catastrophic evacuation zones. It still scores well because, unlike a small state, one failed bridge does not trap everyone.

Last of UsThe Last of Us

82

Very good — build here

Texas gets stronger when the problem shifts from evacuation to civilization-building. It has the raw materials for long-term settlement: land, food, fuel, water and wildlife. Warm humid East Texas is not where you would choose to test fictional Cordyceps, but West Texas is dry.

What helps

Vast rural territory and huge geographic depth
Roughly 125 million acres of farmland across about 229,000 operations
Around 12.1 million cattle and calves, plus enormous poultry production
Nine major and 22 minor aquifers, plus rivers, reservoirs and Gulf access
Extensive road network running in every direction
Major military installations and Guard forces
Enormous energy production, and exceptional wind and solar potential
Mountain, canyon, forest, desert and Hill Country refuge options

What hurts

Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin
Large suburban belts feeding the same freeways
Extreme summer heat and recurring drought
Hurricane, flood, wildfire, tornado and severe-storm exposure
Long distances between supplies in the most remote areas

Get out of the metro before everyone else has the same idea.

Personal assessment

Your state has a score. Do you?

Take the readiness assessment and get your own Zombie Survival Index score!

Get my free ZSI score

The reason for the score

Texas’s zombie superpowers

Four things carry the score, and every one of them is a matter of raw scale rather than clever geography.

1 · Agriculture at absurd scale

USDA’s 2025 Texas overview reports roughly 229,000 farm operations working about 125 million acres, some 12.1 million cattle and calves, 731.8 million broiler chickens produced, and millions of acres of hay, cotton, corn, wheat and sorghum.

2 · Energy

Oil, natural gas, wind, solar and large-scale generation. Centralized systems still fail in a prolonged collapse, but Texas starts with an enormous amount of capacity, fuel infrastructure, technical expertise and renewable potential to fall back on.

3 · Space

More than 261,000 square miles of land. That creates a survival advantage most states cannot replicate: you can actually get far away from things.

4 · Military infrastructure

Fort Bliss, Fort Hood and Joint Base San Antonio, plus National Guard and State Guard forces. A wildcard in both directions — security, logistics and medicine if command structures hold, and a very complicated place full of fuel, vehicles and desperate civilians if they don’t.

The catch

Thirty-one million people

The 2025 Census estimate is approximately 31.7 million residents. The largest metros carry huge suburban footprints, major airports, industrial facilities and freeway systems designed around constant movement. In a rapid outbreak every one of those strengths reverses: freeways fill, fuel disappears, interchanges become chokepoints.

The Houston problem

Harris County alone had an estimated population of more than 5 million in 2025. Houston combines enormous population, major freeways, Gulf Coast hurricane exposure, flooding risk, industrial infrastructure and flat terrain. Against slow walkers you may have time.

Houston is not where you want to discover that your fuel light is on.

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.

01 Population density Moderate statewide — the population is spread across an enormous land area 7/10

02 Major city exposure Houston, DFW, San Antonio, Austin and their suburban belts 3/10

03 Road escape capacity Huge network and many directions, though metro congestion is a real risk 9/10

04 Freshwater availability Nine major and 22 minor aquifers, offset by drought and regional scarcity 7/10

05 Agricultural capacity Roughly 125 million acres operated as farmland 10/10

06 Food self-sufficiency Massive cattle, poultry, dairy, grain, hay and crop production 10/10

07 Wilderness & remote land Vast remote territory, especially West Texas and the Panhandle 9/10

08 Natural defensive terrain Mountains, canyons, desert, Hill Country and forest — but also open plains 8/10

09 Climate survivability Manageable winters, but extreme heat and drought make off-grid life hard 5/10

10 Winter zombie suppression Cold is severe up north and west, but statewide suppression is unreliable 3/10

11 Natural disaster risk Hurricanes, floods, storms, drought, heat, wildfire and tornadoes 3/10

12 Energy production One of the strongest energy-production environments in the country 10/10

13 Off-grid energy potential Exceptional solar and wind potential across large parts of the state 10/10

14 Medical resources Major medical systems and hundreds of hospitals; rural distances are long 9/10

15 Military & Guard presence Major installations plus Army, Air and State Guard forces 10/10

16 Emergency management TDEM runs regional operations and a 24/7 State Operations Center 10/10

17 Supply & logistics Massive highway, freight, port, warehouse, aviation and industrial networks 10/10

18 Infrastructure vulnerability Huge capacity offset by complex grids and concentrated Gulf infrastructure 6/10

19 Survival resource availability Food, livestock, timber, fuel, minerals, water, wildlife and renewables 10/10

20 Evacuation & refuge potential Many rural refuge options once clear of the metros 9/10

21 Natural barriers & water access Rio Grande, Gulf Coast, rivers, reservoirs, canyons — unevenly distributed 7/10

22 Distance from population centers Extensive territory far from any major metro 8/10

23 Chokepoint & bridge dependency Strong route redundancy, though metro freeways can still become traps 8/10

24 Hunting, fishing & foraging TPWD provides access to more than a million acres of public hunting land 10/10

25 Long-term settlement potential Strong mix of land, food, energy, water and defensible rural locations 9/10

Tactics

What works, by scenario

Strategy	Walking Dead	World War Z	Last of Us
Rural ranch or farm	Excellent	Very good	Excellent
Private well	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent
Remote West Texas refuge	Excellent	Excellent	Good — water dependent
Rural Hill Country	Excellent	Very good	Excellent
East Texas forest settlement	Excellent	Good	Very good
Wind + solar microgrid	Very good	Good	Excellent
Military-base proximity	Wildcard	Wildcard	Wildcard
Major highway evacuation	Good early, bad late	Terrible late	Poor
Sheltering in Houston	Poor	Terrible	Poor

Geography

Where to be

Best overall

Rural Edwards Plateau

The best overall balance in the state — western Hill Country, well clear of the I‑35 cities.

Low density and rugged, broken terrain
Ranch and agricultural land
Groundwater and spring-fed areas in parts of the region
Hunting resources and defensible high ground
Small towns without living inside a metro

The caution is water. A beautiful defensive ridge is much less useful if your well runs dry.

Runner-up

East Texas Piney Woods

Away from the major corridors: forest, water, wildlife, fishing, timber, concealment and agriculture make a strong long-term resource base. Downside — warm and humid, which is aesthetically perfect for a fungal apocalypse and practically less so.

Third

Panhandle & High Plains

Immense agricultural territory, very low density, long sightlines, strong wind-energy potential and colder winters than most of Texas. Costs: exposed terrain, severe weather, groundwater concerns and few natural barriers.

Where not to be

Avoid

Houston metro & the Gulf Coast

Bad against walkers. Bad in a long collapse until you are well outside the metro. Against World War Z, simply nope.

Avoid

Dallas–Fort Worth urban core

Enormous transportation capacity and equally enormous population exposure. In a fast outbreak, the major freeway interchanges are exactly where you do not want to be.

Avoid

The I‑35 megacorridor

Austin and San Antonio each have strengths. The problem is the population and movement concentrated between them. If millions of people simultaneously head for “the country,” I‑35 stops being an escape route.

Verdict

80 out of 100 · Grade B−

Texas is built for long-term zombie survival better than most states. It has enormous agricultural capacity, unmatched energy resources, vast rural territory, extensive roads, major military assets, strong hunting resources, and enough geographic variety to offer multiple refuge strategies. The catch is population: more than 31 million people, several giant metro areas, dangerous evacuation congestion, and serious heat, drought, flood, hurricane, wildfire, and severe-storm exposure.

Against walkers it is excellent. Against a long infrastructure collapse it has what durable survivor settlements actually need. Against World War Z the score drops, because the giant metros and freeway networks can turn lethal extremely quickly.

Get out of the metro before everyone else has the same idea.

See the national survey board

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, and the overall number blends baseline readiness with performance across the three outbreak models. Scores stay preliminary until all fifty states are assessed.

U.S. Census Bureau, 2025 Population Estimates and QuickFacts
USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2025 Texas State Agriculture Overview
Texas Water Development Board — major and minor aquifers
U.S. Energy Information Administration
Texas Department of Transportation
Texas Division of Emergency Management
Texas Military Department and U.S. Army
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
Texas State Climatologist and NOAA NCEI
Texas Department of State Health Services