Poll: How many people would survive the apocalypse?

[KarmaCoin 72]

I'd like to start estimating some zombie apocalypse statistics and so I am curious? How many people do you think would still be alive 5 years after the start of the zombie apocalypse?

 

*Clarification*

I'm looking for how many of the entire worlds 7 billion people would be alive 5 years after the start of a zombie apocalypse.

 

As for how the zombie apocalypse spread/started, use your own best judgment about how you think it would go down.

Edited February 21, 2014 by KarmaCoin

[Crooked Hauser 258]

One. Stop posting on a forum, ghost KarmaCoin.

[KarmaCoin 72]

One.

 

I have a feeling that answer might be popular.

[timedance 120]

just me, because every other idiot run to north east airfield and dies :D

Edited February 21, 2014 by TiMEDANCE

[TedZ 424]

Just me, i'll stay in my house playing DayZ :)

[Munson_fry (DayZ) 312]

me because i haz guns, skillz and motivation beyond zombie imagination 

[Hethwill_Khan 233]

1/1000000

[Grimey Rick 3417]

I voted a billion. Why? Because today's society is so fat and plump with unnatural sugars and salts that the zombies' faces would pucker up until they exploded. Three cheers for an extremely unhealthy society!

 

Hip-hip..!

[TheWanderingMan 170]

The USA would be alright for a while, until there wasn't any zombies left and they all started shooting each other instead (which they do anyway lol).

 

I suppose it depends on what type of apocalypse and the geographic location of any outbreak/disaster.

 

inb4 the whinerzz.

[Martmital 436]

none

[soulfirez 901]

LOL it would be a guess and without some specifics to the type of zed its spread etc it wouldnt even be an educated guess..... I mean a romero style zombie event that starts in 1 town or city survivours billions a global chemical cloud survivours very very few see what i am saying...

[blacklabel79 949]

id say minus the fattys..20%

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcwETmj86mk

Edited February 21, 2014 by {Core}BlackLabel

[KarmaCoin 72]

I suppose it depends on what type of apocalypse and the geographic location of any outbreak/disaster.

 

To clarify on the geographic location, I mean out of the entire world population of 7 billion.

 

As for the type of apocalypse, I mean a zombie one. As for how the zombie apocalypse is spread/started use your own best judgement of how you think it would happen.

[Girth Brooks 570]

The bulk of the population is in east asia. And I dunno how they would act. Now, the fatties in 'mericuh (I'm a U.S citizen) would kill each other for twinkies. Not being a fat sausage fingered slob myself, I would just camp out in the wilderness, maybe scoot up to Canada. They gots good smoke up there anyways.

[Combine (DayZ) 247]

Hard to impossible to really tell. It would depend on so many things.

 

Also, by coincidence I just watched a fictional documentation about a scenario like that where an engineered rabies strain is released by mistake. It spreads as fast an influenza or so but in rabies form. Your average zombie scenario seems similar, depending on the incubation time and so on.

 

In that scenario, after about a year 1,4 billion people would be infected and about ~980 million already dead (no, not infected or undead-dead, gone, you get it). Some states or at least governments would collapse, depending on whether vaccines work or whatever more would die. It would be global due to the way it spreads, but you could still have safe spots. The major urban centers would rather suck, though.

 

Also, it would depend on other mammals or insects, if they can spread it, etc.

 

"Me" or anything closely would surely be a stupid answer because there's also tribes living out there immune to certain infections, in addition to people all over the planet being naturally immune to various diseases. Many people would surely die, but humanity would probably make it. Humanity as a whole, not your average western citizen too dependent on the infrastructure that would certainly collapse in such an event.

 

Or in other words, I doubt many people on this and other game forums would still live after some time.

 

E: I personally think from the way it was presented and explained that it's NOT a scenario to make fun of or to laugh at. They also said that there's always "good" and "bad" research going on in that sector. Also, a virus can also mutate over time. It's actually very scary if you think about it, but it is, after all, a possible scenario. Just like an asteroid or something big hitting earth sooner or later.

Edited February 21, 2014 by Combine

[TheWanderingMan 170]

Well if it was a zombie outbreak I'd say that smaller countries and island nations would do better, airborne pathogen or not. The larger countries with lapse gun laws would just end up killing eachother a lot quicker. (not trying to have the old gun debate, just stating facts).

 

Society is fucked, so without anymore barriers people would simply go medieval imo.

[Combine (DayZ) 247]

Oh, yeah, in such a scenario the worst or one of the worst problems is humans themselves, sadly.

 

Hysteria, looting and so on will or might bring as much 'terror' or problems as any violent disease carrier mob.

[KarmaCoin 72]

without anymore barriers people would simply go medieval imo.

 

Before DayZ I didn't think this. I thought people would be much more open to helping each other and surviving as a group. Playing DayZ has made me reconsider this idea because of my own actions.

 

When I play DayZ I try to avoid running into people out of fear they will kill me and steal my can opener. And when I do run into people I get trigger happy out of fear they will kill me and steal my can opener.

 

I see now how hard it would be to trust a stranger once all the "barriers" like the law and police are gone.

[TheWanderingMan 170]

I take the Road as accurate as a story could be in apocalyptic scenario. It's funny that in the novel the only 'civilised' communities that are left are the ones that accepted cannibalism and open hostility to others.

 

Like I said, society is already fucked well and truly so god knows what would happen with no laws or government.

[strangelyquiet 67]

Probably more survivors than people would guess, but it really would depend on the type of outbreak, transmission process, mortality rate and infection control.

 

The 'zombie apocalypse' we most commonly think about follows the lines of a pandemic. Looking back through history, the most lethal pandemics have claimed claimed tens of millions of lives, but in our total world population of seven billion that would still leave a lot of survivors.

 

For instance two of the biggest historical pandemics:

* The Black Death - upper estimates between 75-100million dead. 

* Spanish flu - upper estimates between 50-100million dead.

 

Two factors would likely increase the death toll: i) if this was a truly global event. No pandemic has ever caused infection in every country across the world simultaneously. ii) we think of 'zombie infection' as having a 100% mortality rate. No pandemic has ever been that lethal - the worst top out at 50-75% mortality rates for those infected.

 

It's estimated that the smallest the human population has ever got during an extinction event was 70,000 years ago when the worldwide population may have fallen to 10,000 - 20,000. This was the result of natural phenomena though, not pandemic infection.

 

Even with increased lethality I'd still guess that the type of 'zombie apocalypse' we're all familiar with would still leave a few billion survivors. Just one billion survivors would assume an 85% fall in global population and nothing has ever depopulated the earth on such a scale.

[Hetzer_ing 22]

A zombie apocalypse would be the best scenario Happening event

[EchoRomeoCharlie 19]

Most people that live in, or decided to stay in medium to large cities would be dead by that point.  Food would have dried up, water would be worthless because there are too many people in too small of an area.  The people with weapons will have taken over and hoarded any food/water left. which won't be much if any at the 5 year mark.  Large cities will pretty much be waste lands.

 

People in smaller towns would have to fight off the influx of the city dwellers that decide to come to the country at first.  Most people in smaller towns or living in the country will have died as well since the vast majority of people today have zero survival skills past what they saw on Dual Survival on the discovery channel.  They have zero knowledge on how to kill and process game let alone how to preserve meat without refrigeration.

 

People with the absolute best chances to still be alive after 5 years of societies collapse will be people living in the country greater than 10 miles from any interstate and greater than 50 miles from any medium sized city.  They will be farmers, hunters, and already have provisions to heat their homes with wood. 

[KarmaCoin 72]

The 'zombie apocalypse' we most commonly think about follows the lines of a pandemic. Looking back through history, the most lethal pandemics have claimed claimed tens of millions of lives, but in our total world population of seven billion that would still leave a lot of survivors.

 

For instance two of the biggest historical pandemics:

* The Black Death - upper estimates between 75-100million dead. 

* Spanish flu - upper estimates between 50-100million dead.

 

Two factors would likely increase the death toll: i) if this was a truly global event. No pandemic has ever caused infection in every country across the world simultaneously. ii) we think of 'zombie infection' as having a 100% mortality rate. No pandemic has ever been that lethal - the worst top out at 50-75% mortality rates for those infected.

 

A third thing that would probably increase the death toll is the fact that unlike the black death and Spanish flu the zombie pandemic turns its victims into a flesh craving psychopath rather than a feeble sick person.

 

Disposal of corpses was an extremely difficult undertaking during the black death, just imagine how much more chaotic it would be if those corpses were running around eating people.

Edited February 21, 2014 by KarmaCoin

[Stixx (DayZ) 48]

I dunno...even if it was fast spreading super bug. I think zombie infection would be over before it could really start...maybe lose a couple of cities. With all the guns in 'Merica it would be a over pretty quick..yunno with all the hunters,rednecks,gun totin ppl and preppers .Here in Alaska they would freeze before we got to shoot..and last I heard it was like 7 guns per household.

I mean who's NOT itchin' to put down a few zombies?

Aren't we all just alittle excited for a zombie outbreak?

Pew pew 'merica

[KarmaCoin 72]

With all the guns in 'Merica it would be a over pretty quick.. last I heard it was like 7 guns per household.

 

There are a lot of guns out there, but not quite that many.

 

U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.

 

Thats around 90 guns for every 100 people in the US. And only 9 for every 100 in the rest of the world. So perhaps the US would fair better than the rest of the world?