The 20 Rattiest Cities in the U.S.

The first-place finisher isn’t New York City.

By Ellen Gutoskey |
Has this rat attacked any infants lately?
Has this rat attacked any infants lately? / Alan Tunnicliffe Photography/GettyImages

There’s a robust Wikipedia page for “Rats in New York City” whose section headings illustrate the cultural impact of the Big Apple’s rodent residents better than we ever could. For example: “Notable restaurant infestations, “Destruction of infrastructure,” “Hurricane Ida depopulation event,” “Viral videos,” and—seriously, its own section—“Attacks on infants.”

That last one features a gruesome New York Times story about a “New-Born Child Gnawed by Vermin” at Bellevue Hospital back in 1860. “In the female wards the rats in the night-time run about in swarms … and in the private apartments of the main building those employed in the institution go to bed with a broom-stick at hand, that they may repel them when they grow too familiar,” the paper reported. “In a bath-tub, last Monday night, forty rats were caught. The vermin have full possession of the building, and if, without reconstructing its interior entirely, they are removed, it will be more than amazing.”

In short, New York City has been at war with rats for ages, and it’s hard to imagine that any other city is more infested. But according to Orkin’s Top 50 Rattiest Cities List, Chicago actually holds the title—and it has for all 10 years that Orkin has been publishing the list. Chicago residents’ rat-related horror stories certainly rival those of their New York counterparts, and the rats themselves are just as audacious.

One Tommy Lawler spotted a good 10 rats while mowing a friend’s lawn in Chicago’s Clearing neighborhood. “They looked like they were in a fricking resort,” he told Block Club Chicago in 2023. “One of them was in a puddle like he was doing the doggy paddle or something. They were afraid of nothing! They didn’t care!”

New York City landed in third on this year’s list, sandwiched between Los Angeles in second place and San Francisco in fourth. Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Seattle all made the top 15; rats aren’t picky about what region they live in. For what it’s worth, rats are only part of the problem: Orkin based the breakdown on residential rodent treatments tackling mice, too.

Find out the top 20 rattiest (and mousiest) cities below, and see the full 50 here.

  1. Chicago, Illinois
  2. Los Angeles, California
  3. New York City, New York
  4. San Francisco, California
  5. Washington, D.C.
  6. Denver, Colorado
  7. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  8. Detroit, Michigan
  9. Baltimore, Maryland
  10. Cleveland, Ohio
  11. Minneapolis, Minnesota
  12. Boston, Massachusetts
  13. Hartford, Connecticut
  14. Seattle, Washington
  15. Indianapolis, Indiana
  16. Atlanta, Georgia
  17. Columbus, Ohio
  18. San Diego, California
  19. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  20. Sacramento, California

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