America's 50 most rat-infested cities, ranked

By Caitlin Morton
Published: 10:01 AM May 30, 2022
Getty Images

Where are the rats?

What is the most rat-infested city in the United States? Believe it or not, there's an annual survey for that.

The pest company Orkin counts the number of new residential and commercial rodent treatments it performs in a 12-month period. From there, it ranks the 50 "rattiest" U.S. cities.

The latest data, collected from September 15, 2020, to September 15, 2021, reflects a time when some restaurants were closed due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Orkin says those closures forced rats to find new food sources — and new homes. All this drove up the overall number of rodent sightings. 

Read on for the complete ranking of America's most rat-infested cities.