How The World Is Most Likely To End, According To Americans
And how long they think they would survive the apocalypse.
Getty Images People love thinking about, discussing and debating the apocalypse and all things related to the potential end of the world.
That statement might sound weird at first, but think about all of the movies, TV shows, podcasts, YouTube videos and even TikTok and Instagram accounts now exist that are dedicated to predicting the end of our very existence her on Earth.
Maybe "end times" will be caused by climate change like in 2004 film "The Day After Tomorrow."
Maybe most of humanity will be wiped out from a botched attempt at genetic re-engineering like in "I Am Legend."
Maybe much smarter aliens will overcome the inhabitants of Earth like in "The War Of The Worlds."
Or maybe biblical prophesies will turn out to be true.
But what do most Americans actually believe will happen when the time come and how do they think the world will end?
Well, thankfully, the folks at YouGov created a poll to find out the answer to this and related (apparently particularly pressing) questions.
The number one answer as to how people think the world will end was nuclear war, which received 28% of the votes.
The second most popular answer was "don't think there will be an apocalypse," which received 20% of the votes.
The remaining answers from the most popular to least were climate change (16%), judgment day (16%), worldwide revolution (9%), something else (8%), zombies (2%), and alien invasion (1%).
Call us crazy, but isn't an alien invasion a little more probable than one by zombies? I mean there is a huge universe out there that we don't know about...
How Long People Think They Would Survive Should An Apocalyptic Disaster Strike:
In total, when asked "How much have you thought about preparing for an apocalyptic disaster which ends civilization as you know it?" — 11% of the survey's respondents say a great deal, 22% say some, another 22% say a little, and 45% say none at all.
And as for how many think they would actually survive on their own should one strike, 10% responded that they would expect to last less than one day, 28% thought they would make it a few days more, 16% think they could last almost a week, and highly confident 46% think they would stick around for a week or more.
How People Think the World Will End According to Their Political Party:
It's interesting to see that the top two answers are so different, ranging from the very worst possible scenario to thinking there won't be an apocalypse at all.
But what's even more interesting is that people who identified as belonging to particular politically parties expect the end of the world to come about so differently than those across the aisle.
Democrats' most popular belief regarding the apocalypse was climate change (27%), whereas Independents (27%) and Republicans (36%) agreed that nuclear war is the most likely end times scenario .
To be fair, though, we may not all be as far apart as you may think, as nuclear war was the runner up for Democrats at 23%.
That said, both Independents and Republicans seem to feel strongly that Judgment day is a far more likely second choice (18% and 20%, respectively) than climate change (at 12% and 5%).
Guess we'll just have to wait and see who's right!
Nicole Weaver is a love and entertainment writer.
Editor's Note: This article was originally posted on March 13, 2015 and was updated with the latest information.