The Rattiest City

The Rattiest City

Rats and Cities

Rats are shockingly adept at navigating city life. They are like little acrobats – they can scale high brick walls, balance on thin wires to travel from building to building, and have extremely powerful teeth and jaws, allowing them to gnaw their way into virtually anything. The two most common city rats are the Roof Rat (rattus rattus) and the Norway rat (rattus noevegicus), and in areas that are highly populated with these rodents, there can even be a higher population of rats than people in a given location. But what city have the most rats? Ito answer this, we examined several different ratings for the rattiest cities in both the US and the world in order to form a list of the top contenders for you.  

Rattiest Cities in the United States

There are a variety of things that can draw rats to a city, including: lots of outdoor garbage/dumpsters, alleys, water sources/moisture, powerful smells of food, large sewage systems, and more. Unfortunately, our city of Chicago checks all of these boxes and, as such, we have been deemed the “rat capital” of America. But, while we may have the most rats, we aren’t alone in having major rodent problems. Based on several sources it seems like the following are the top rattiest U.S. cities in descending order.

1. Chicago, Illinois
2. Los Angeles, California
3. New York, New York
4. Washington D.C.
5. San Francisco, California
6. Detroit, Michigan
7. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
8. Cleveland, Ohio
9. Baltimore, Maryland
10. Denver, Colorado

Rattiest Cities in the World

While we may be the “rat capital” in the United States, we certainly aren’t the leading city worldwide.

1. Deshnoke, India – located in northwestern India, this city is famous for its rats thanks to the Karni Mata Temple. Known as the “Temple of Rats” this holy place not only invites rats to live there, but worships them as well.
2. Paris, France – unfortunately for Parisians, this is one city in which the rat population exceeds that of humans. When the rat population was estimated back in 2008, it was determined that roughly 8 million rats inhabited the streets while only roughly 2 million people lived in the city.
3. London, England – for years on end, the River Thames has been a massive rat-magnet, and unfortunately it seems to still be a major hub for these rodents today.
4. Chicago, USA – we may not be the “rattiest” in the world… but we still make the list at number 4.
5. Mumbai, India – the poor city is literally crawling with rats and there was even an incident in which rats were found on an international flight leaving Mumbai and headed to Doha

Citations

Anand, A. (2013) India’s latest export to Doha: Rats from Mumbai, Mumbai Mirror. Available at: https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/other/indias-latest-export-to-doha-rats-from-mumbai/articleshow/22150825.cms (Accessed: May 24, 2021). Chicago ranked ‘rattiest city’ by Orkin pest control for 6th straight year (2020) ABC7 Chicago. WLS-TV. Available at: https://abc7chicago.com/rats-in-chicago-orkin-pest-control-new-york/7076439/ (Accessed: May 24, 2021). Petsko, E. (2018) These Are America’s 50 Most Rat-Infested Cities, Mental Floss. Available at: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/561029/most-rat-infested-cities-in-america (Accessed: May 24, 2021). Polan, S. and Sharma, U. (2018) Why Cities Can’t Get Rid of Rats, YouTube. Science Insider. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD6eZrrcp1Y (Accessed: July 2020). Top 10 Worst Rat Cities in the World (2014) Animal Planet. Available at: http://www.animalplanet.com/wild-animals/2-boston-ma/ (Accessed: May 24, 2021).