How Many Rats Live in New York City?

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New York City is the largest city in the United States. It is known for its hustle and bustle, Broadway Shows and Wall Street legends. The Big Apple as it is called is also known for a bit of a rat problem. Some say “you are never more than six feet from a rat in New York”, not sure if that refers to the actual animal or not! Rats are a huge problem in the city and the problem is getting worse. Is New York the City with the most rats? Are there any cities that don’t have rats? How many rats live in New York City? Let’s find out!

What city has the most rats?

The pest control group Orkin puts together a list of the “Rattiest Cities” not a list you want to be at the top of. They look at the number of rat control calls that are recorded by pest control companies. According to Orkin Chicago is the Rattiest City in 2020 and has held that title for the past 7 years in a row. Not far behind that is Los Angeles. There were so many rats in one school in LA that they had to close the school to clean it up before allowing students and teachers to return. The third place “winner” was New York! Here are the top ten cities in the US with the most rats:

1. Chicago

2. Los Angeles

3. New York City

4. Washington, D.C.

5. San Francisco

6. Baltimore

7. Philadelphia

8. Detroit

9. Denver

10. Cleveland

How many rats live in New York City?

There are an estimated 2 million rats living in New York City! Two million rats running around in subways, alleys, restaurants, and your $3,000/month studio apartment.

Where does this estimate come from? In 2014 a study was published in the scientific journal Significance that analyzed New York’s rat problem through reported rat sighting in different New York neighborhoods. They found that 20% of neighborhoods account for 50% of rat sightings, with areas like Manhattan’s Upper West Side and Brooklyn’s Bushwick having particularly high levels of rat sightings.

After crunching the numbers on sightings and applying some assumptions, the study found that the number of rats in New York City was 2 million (+/- 150,000).

How many people live in New York City?

The population of New York City is 8,177,025. The largest borough in the city is Brooklyn with a population of 2.736 million while the smallest borrough is Staten Island with a population of just under a half million.

Are there more rats or people in New York City?

There are more people than rats in New York City…for now. But the number of rats in the city are on the rise. The lockdowns due to Covid have sent rats into more residential areas when restaurants and bars closed down, making food less available for rats. With 2 million rats and 8 million people that is one rat for every family of four.

What kind of rat lives in New York City?

The rat that lives in New York City is the Norway rat or brown rat. If you live where rats are not an issue you may be surprised to learn that Norway rats are big! They are not like a house mouse which are typically 3-4 inches not including the tail. Rats like the Norway rat are 7-9 inches long with an additional 7-9 inches of tail. The average Norway rat has a total average length of 16 inches. They can also weigh from ½ to 1 pound. For reference, an adult guinea pig weighs 1-3 pounds so these rats are big!

Previoulsy there were both black rats and Norway rats in New York, but in recent decades Norway rats have both out-competed and killed the smaller black rats. Today, black rats are relatively rare in the city.

What is the biggest rat in the world?

Maybe the Norway rat isn’t that bad. Can you imagine finding an 8 pound rat nibbling on some fallen breakfast cereal in your kitchen? The Sumatran bamboo rat is the largest rat in the world and weighs 8.8 pounds. Its body, just the body not including the tail, is 20 inches long! Tack on another 8 inches of tail and you have a total of 28 inch rat. Lucky for New York, they are only found in Sumatra and parts of China.

Have rats always been a problem in New York?

No. Rats have not always been a problem in New York. Norway rats are an invasive species, they have not always lived here in the United States. Invasive species are spcies that are not from a habitat and once introduced are harmful to current animals and/or plants. Other invasive species in New York are the zebra mussel, snakehead fish and Eurasian boar. Norway rats were introduced to North America around 1776 coming over on boats when the Germans came over to help with the war efforts of the British. They quickly spread across the country.

How do you get rid of rats?

The quest for the perfect mouse trap is not just a saying. There really is still an enormous problem with mice and rats and we, as humans, still have not figured out a way to deal with them. Here are a few ways to try to eliminated rats:

1) The new mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, is implementing a program that uses rat buckets to catch rats. These devices are used by luring rats in with food but instead of reaching the food they slide down a ramp into a bucket of water where they drown.

2) One group in New York hunts rats with dogs. They take calls from residents and business owners and respond with a group of leashed dogs that hunt and kill the rats.

3) You can get a certificate from “Rat Control Academy”, a program created to educate city employees about how to prevent rats from infesting their businesses.

3) A pilot program is in place to flood rats burrows with dry ice. When it melts it makes a lot of carbon dioxide and the rats suffocate. Kind of like letting your car run in a garage with the door closed.

4) Another pilot program involves something like birth control for rats. Feeding rats ContraPest causes infertility in rats.

Are there any cities that don’t have rats?

The entire province of Alberta, Cananda is essentially rat-free. In 1950 they had nearly 500 rat infestations. By 1970 with an enormous effort by the rat task force they got that number down to 100 populations. By the 1990’s there were fewer than 15 infestations and by 2003 the number was down to 0. Currently they maintain a “Rat Control Zone” along the southeastern border of the province where they do daily checks and respond immediately to any calls. They do have the advantage of having the Rocky mountains as natural border to the west and south. They used a combination of public awareness and diligent checking of farms to get rid of the rats and that continues today.

Are there any cities that have more rats than people?

London, United Kingdom has an enormous rat problem with some estimates from pest control groups of 20 million rats! With a human population of 9.5 million that means rats outnumber people 2-to-1. Since New York City does not have 8 pound Sumatran bamboo rats or have 20 million rats, maybe the rat problem in New York City really isn’t that bad!