A woman opens her cupboards to inspect her supplies. Inside, rows of tinned food glare back at her. Her eyes skim over the immaculately placed cans of soup and the orderly bags of dehydrated vegetables, checking that everything is in date.
Then she spots something that disturbs her. There are only 25 bottles of water left in the house. There must always be at least 27. Perplexed by such an egregious oversight, she quickly jots down a shopping list and heads to the supermarket. While there, she decides to buy more long-burning candles and a jumbo tub of rice.
You may call this woman a worrywart or paranoid, but given today’s geopolitical climate, ‘prepper’ would be a better description.
Just Like the Movies?
Preppers are a group of individuals who prepare themselves for emergencies, whether that be natural disasters or nuclear war, by proactively accumulating the necessities and skills for survival. Once considered the pursuit of khaki-clad, oddball Americans, prepping has become more common in a world consumed by chaos. There is no data on the number of survivalists globally, but there are an estimated 20 million preppers in the U.S. alone, and this figure continues to rise year on year.
Some attribute the growth of the survivalist movement to our obsession with post-apocalyptic fiction. Writers throughout the ages have pondered what life would be like after the end of the world, with books such as The Road and After Arrival depicting families scavenging derelict buildings in order to survive. Many of these dystopian novels even went on to inspire films, from After the End, about a teenage prepper whose apocalyptic predictions come true, to I Am Legend, which follows Dr Neville and his German Shepherd as they defend themselves from vampiric creatures. Hollywood has a tendency to glamorise Armageddon. But to claim that this is the sole driving force behind the rise of prepping would be naive. With global warming causing more frequent flooding, and the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan and the Middle East, survivalism is a reflection of our growing anxieties surrounding geopolitical instability.
If we look at Google Trends, searches for ‘prepping’ in the UK have spiked since the Trump administration decided to bomb Iran in late February. Additionally, interest in water purification equipment and stable iodine tablets (which block the thyroid gland from absorbing radioactive iodine) peaked in early March, having been practically nonexistent just three weeks ago. The data mirrors what two-thirds of Brits fear; namely, that the UK would not be able to cope should nuclear conflict arise.
Global Uncertainty
The demographic of preppers is rapidly changing. Though the majority are still middle-aged men, it’s clear that more women, parents and those living in urban areas want to become more self-sufficient. Why? Because we all remember how difficult it was to find certain items during the COVID pandemic. The canned food and dry goods aisles were decimated, and toilet paper became a scarce resource. No one wants to be in that situation again, where you cannot find basic household items.
‘When lockdown was announced, and I stopped [by] Tesco after work, I was horrified to see empty shelves,’ recalls Rebecca Tidy, a writer from Cornwall, who has been prepping ever since.
Her reasons for stockpiling are particularly acute. Her young daughter has Avoidant / Restrictive Food Intake Disorder and a severe dairy allergy, making her diet very limited. Tidy always ensures she has significant quantities of key foods in her cupboard should they ever become unavailable.
‘These days, we keep tinned food, gallons of bottled water and other essentials stored away,’ explains Rebecca, who has also begun growing her own vegetables and is now considering installing solar panels.
A smart decision, when you consider that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is set to cause a surge in heating bills and empty supermarket shelves. But not everyone has the luxury to stockpile. Most young people remain locked out of the prepper movement because stockpiling requires money to be able to buy in bulk, plus the space to store your rainy-day items. Of course, none of this has stopped survivalism content from going viral. The UK Preppers and Survivalists group on Facebook has 26,000 members, whilst UK Preppers Club, founded by a woman who goes by Ana’s Food & Lifestyle online, has 10,000 members. Like Rebecca, Ana, a 41-year-old mother from Wales, began hardcore prepping after the pandemic because there was a shortage of baby formula for her newborn. It wasn’t until January 2024 that she decided to start sharing her passion for survivalism on Facebook. Since then, she has witnessed white-collar workers join the movement who ‘simply want stability and security.’
‘[They’re] nothing like the stereotypes you see in films,’ she adds.
Mitigation
Ana believes that prepping is about ‘creating resilience in everyday life’ to lessen ‘the impact of unforeseen circumstances.’ Most preppers are ordinary people concerned about their ability to support their families if disaster strikes. And this needn’t be World War III or societal collapse; it could be something as simple as food shortages caused by supply chain issues.
‘I’m not prepping for an apocalypse or zombie invasion,’ says Ana. ‘The things I prepare for are actually very ordinary [like] economic pressures, price spikes, supply disruptions, storms, power cuts.’
By becoming self-sufficient, households can reduce the disruption to their lives caused by cyberattacks and power blackouts, as those seen in Spain in April 2025. The incident, which also affected parts of Portugal and France, caused widespread havoc. Buildings were without electricity, card payments couldn’t be accepted for almost 24 hours, and transport ground to a halt. A severe case of overvoltage was to blame. In Tunbridge Wells, a more localised catastrophe led to similar chaos. Residents were left without access to running water for six days in January, affecting their ability to cook, drink, wash and use the toilet. These issues were caused by freezing temperatures and poor pipe maintenance.
Prepping is no longer a hobby or an activity to make fun of. For many, it’s a necessity. When faced with failing infrastructure and an uncertain future, taking simple steps to ensure that we all have a stash of necessities to hand can soothe panic during turbulent times.
Prepping 101:
- Bottled water
- Tinned, canned, freeze-dried or dehydrated food
- Power bank & adapter
- Thermal clothing & foil blankets
- Electric hot plate
- First aid kit
- Wind-up torch or lantern
- Toiletries & disinfectant wipes
- Radio
- Water tank
- Water purification tablets
- Generator (> 10,000 Watts is enough to power a house)
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