How old is the average prepper?

Hubby and I are coming 40, all my prepper friends locally are within five years of us going either way, but its worth noting that most of my friends locally moved down from Iqaluit, nunavut over the years being reposted down to the ottawa area, so we all meet in the north, we are all outdoor, hunting an camping folks, most are geologists, and the other new friends I made since moving down are military mainly.

When you are planning your year's worth of supplies for the sealift order, and tending to spend months in camps and the field, I think there might be a built in choice to be what is commonly now called a prepper, most the folks bought farms/land as we don't thrive well in the cities, I know of a few, but they barely made the required summers in the camps and then got office jobs, I should say.. most field Geologists tend to find the cities a bit much..

I will be interested to see if others will share and their answers..

Other half and I are both 50 (what!!! already!!). She's city born and bred, I'm more rural.
Our 18 yr old daughter completely gets it, knows the economic situation the world is in, knows the immediate future is going to be full of changes to the status quo.
My wife thinks I'm some kind of fear monger and has what I call "normalcy bias". As long as her TV shows are still on everything is fine - no need to do anything. She grew up in the heart of the city(TO), shopped DAILY for their supper, sees no need to have more than tomorrows breakfast on hand, and treats a credit card like a bottomless pit.
She's increasingly unhappy about me spending perfectly good vacation money and new clothes money on extra mortgage payments, or paying off her credit card bills - the trend is not going in a good direction either.
My parents grew up during the depression, threw nothing away(a washed out milk bag always hung on the kitchen tap- good for freezer stuff), had a root cellar, huge garden and were preppers before the word was invented.
Hunting, fishing, all kinds of foraging for mushrooms, fiddleheads, berries etc.
My grandparents homesteaded in Burlington, cleared the trees, started a farm.

From my perspective it's more about how you were raised than your age but the last 50 years of prosperity have an awful lot of people unable to even consider the possibility of anything but continuing good times.

I'm going on 57. 😯 Sorry, that number shocks me, I liked being 40ish. But, I am comfortable being me, at long last. I'm long divorced and will probably stay that way as I tend to try to be too accommodating to people that I have to live in close proximity to. I'll be that crazy person living by themselves in a cave.

I have two adult children, 27 and 23. They are only peripherally aware that I'm a prepper, but occasionally I asked them what they'd do if we had an earthquake or some other disaster and the condo didn't make it. Answer: go to Grampa's house. After that I don't have any plans. (Crow bar --> zombie head) 👿

My daughter is getting married soon, to a US Marine and does plan to learn to use a gun as she will be living in the states. She will be a prepper, I'm sure. She seems aware and okay with the concept. My son is aware of the concept, but not so much into the preparation part.

My fiance and I are both 45. He was city born and raised, I was small town and rural. I grew up around relatives who had lived a number of years off grid, grew up in the depression, so their habits carried over and many were passed on to me. Like Perfesser, my grandparents had a massive garden, root cellar, canned/preserved etc. Most hunted and fished, outdoorsy folk - so it gave me good exposure at a young age. They have passed on now, I miss their voice of experience so much but am pleased to discover over time, that I remember more then I had realized...I think they'd be happy...

My son is 23, my daughter 25 and getting married. My son is getting on board more lately with it - he is paying attention to the erratic current events and we have been having many discussions about the what-ifs and how-to's. He is in the middle of moving and not prepped but I am putting together a bag for him for the interim. My daughter and her fiance are military, did a tour in Afghanistan, etc ... They are well versed in weaponry and survival skills and she has recently been coming around to prepping a little more, putting up some food, water etc. It's not enough but getting there at least - with her brother moving in, she is getting more attentive to it.

The kids always knew I was a prepper of sorts, though we never called it that back then, it was more like putting things aside for the 'what-ifs', self-sustainability - sneak into mom's basement pantry and get into the goodies, lol ... now they are really understanding why.

I'm 38 and hubby is 40. We have 2 kids, 21 and 23, on their own that are also prepping witht their significant others. And 3 kids left at home that totally get it and are always helping out.

I am 48, city and country bred, military trained, bushman trained, divorced for the last time I will not even live with another person again. They can be near, but not in the same house. I am only comfortable in the woods, moving from a bushman, survivalists point of view to Prepper and Permaculturalists.

Live off grid now in an alternate lifestyle, soon to be moving into the bush almost full time spring summer fall, then full time Winter time.

I'm 44 and DH is 54 - we have 7 kids ranging in age between 18 and 25. DH is raised in the city and I in a small town. We moved to a farm because he REALLY loves me 🙂 He preps because he sees somethings as possibilities and perhaps mostly because he knows it makes me happy.

One of our daughters is married. Her DH is an aprentice carpenter - great skill set in the making. All of our biological kids see the need to prep - two are still at home so although they help us prep they don't particularly have preps themselves but they are getting prepared with skills. Our adopted kids are not very interested but they all know if the SHTF they will be welcomed home.

54 yo woman. I was raised to believe that a woman isn't a whole woman without a man. I've been single since 2002 and I still have all of my parts.
My youngest daughter thinks I'm certifiable, my eldest daughter considers me to be unconventional. She is considering "the prepping thing."

At 41,I feel like the baby of this family. DW is 43 and we have 6 kids between us...22, 20, 15, 12, 3, 2. Raised in a small town, lived 20 some years in the city and now back to the smaller, more rural life, as I believe prepping is easier out of the urban environment.

25... raised in a small town in the North... living in GTA for work now... hoping to move back up eventually

35 here. Childhood in northern mining towns, far enough north that generally, they were where the road ended. Parents moved us back to civilization when I was in my early teens in a bid to socialize me and my sibs enough we could function in a world full of 'strangers.' (Up until then, while I knew what the word meant it was pretty academic, I'd never met any.) As for the prepping mindset, dad gets it, mom thinks I have strange hobbies and the signifigant other is amused and willing to indulge me. No kids, although I have dastardly plans to subvert the nieces and nephews to the saving mentality. I will wait until they're out of the diaper set though 🙂

Hi all;
Thank you all for being so willing to open up. With the responses so far, average age of both men and women is about 45 to 46 years. There is clearly some connection to being raised in a rural environment and, in case you thought you were the odd duck out when it comes to relationships, a lot of us have been around the block at least once. For my wife and I, it is third time lucky. I would like to think that persistence finally payed off for us, but I guess the other possibility is that we are just slow learners, which would explain our late arrival to the prepping thing. 😆 And, for those of you that have expressed age shock, relax... I am the oldest at 61... Maybe I should change my posting name to 'grandpa'.

I'm 37. She wookie is 33. We have two boys 2 and 6 weeks. Have to get my act in gear and re-do my preps to accommodate the lil-un. I dread trying to carry the new bug out bags! Diapers X2!!!

I hail from near Dundas Ont and WW from Brandon Man. I've lived on Van Isle since 92. Love it by the sea.

Hi everybody. Just to take part and play along I am 45. More and more people I talk to are seeing preppers as not leaving things to chance. Sure there are the die hard peole that can pull a MacGyver with a toothpick and the contents from a lost and found box. Over all, just having the conversation that its going to come down to you for a period of time, planning, preparing, being ready to take care of you and yours is becoming less of a fringe group. Thanks. 😀