Now, that’s not to say we don’t have plenty of rats…because we definitely still do. However, according to RentHop, Chicago seems to have even more than NYC these days!
Of the four major U.S. cities Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, and New York City, the highest rat-related complaints in 2017 came from the Chicago. The Windy City had a whopping 50,963 complaints, where NYC only had 19,152. In 2018 alone there have already been 13,753 rat complaints in Chicago!
And according to RentHop’s study, “to rank fairly, [they] normalized complaints by city population according to the most recent Census data available. Hypothetically, cities with denser populations might have more complaints. This allows [them] to fairly compare one city to another because one would assume that a city with denser population will also have more complaints, and this will correct that.”
As for NYC specifically, RentHop released a study a few weeks ago that still states rats in “thrive” during the summer…which doesn’t exactly put any of us at ease. Even if we don’t hold the title of ‘rat capital’ anymore, there are still so many rats here that they equal about 20% of the human population. And in the first quarter of 2018, NYC has already made 4,831 complaints of “rodent sightings.”
For the full study of rats in NYC during the summer, click here. And for the full “rat capital” study, click here.
featured image source: photo modified: flickr / Art Bromage / CC by 2.0