Difference between Urban and Rural Prepping

In the event of a disaster or any kind of natural or manmade catastrophe likely to last longer than a week or so, do you plan to stay put in your own home or head off to somewhere that seems safer?

Given that exceedingly few people are likely to have a purpose built “safe space” available, the choice is going to be between staying in a more or less urban environment or escaping to the countryside.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) around 9 million people in the UK (17%) of the population live in the countryside but the overwhelming majority of 45 million (83%) live in towns and cities. In the event of an emergency, therefore, you might have little choice but to stay put in your urban or semi-urban environment.

And that makes for some critical differences in your approach to prepping. In the language of the preppers themselves, the choice is between “bugging in” (staying put) or “bugging out” (escaping to the countryside).

Urban Prepping

Here are some of the features of urban life most likely to influence the way you prepare for any crisis:

• in any urban environment, you may benefit from the infrastructure that has grown up alongside it – shops are likely to have been well-stocked immediately before any crisis, so food might continue to be available for longer, and energy supplies may be more reliable too;

• by definition, though, you are going to be surrounded by more people in an urban setting;

• more people – especially those living in cramped conditions – may also spell a greater risk of sanitation problems and disease;

• there is likely to be quite stiff competition for increasingly scarce resources – and this may lead to civil unrest or even riot;

• in any crisis or survival situation, water is an absolute essential – in urban environments, it might become increasingly difficult to source clean water that is safe enough to drink;

• because of the potential dangers – from disease or unrest – on the streets or anywhere outside, you might be faced by long periods hunkered down inside alone;

• homes are naturally smaller in floor area in towns and cities, so you may be hard-pressed finding the storage space for the supplies and food stocks when prepping.

Rural Prepping

The escape to some wild and remote spot in the countryside, where you can live off your wits, supported by your survivalist and backwoodsman’s skills, is probably many people’s ideal for “bugging out” – but it is by no means the easier or even the safer option:

• with the countryside that remains in the UK, there would simply not be enough space to support any mass exodus from the towns and cities;

• if you were one of those managing to make the escape, you might indeed find that there are fewer people around – easier on your health and the risk of civil unrest, perhaps – but you would also have to manage and survive without the help of others nearby;

• you may have many miles to travel before finding medical, let alone hospital, care and treatment;

• there may be next to nothing by way of existing or remaining infrastructure, so you will have had to prepare and build up your supplies and stocks of food well in advance – though, with greater living space, you might have more room in which to store it.

Suburban Prepping

Where there are likely to be both advantages and disadvantages to urban and rural prepping, suburban prepping might be the alternative that seems to offer it all.

You are far enough away from crowded city centres to have space – and maybe a little land – to yourself. Access to existing supplies and infrastructure might therefore be possible for longer. The risk of civil unrest may be less acute, and it may be easier to self-isolate in the event of disease or a pandemic.

Yet neither are the open spaces of the countryside that far away either. You might enjoy the best of both worlds.