Albuquerque, Denver, and Phoenix have all secured places on a list not likely to attract new residents: the Rattiest Cities in America.
Compiled by the pest control company Orkin, which is based in Walnutport, Pennsylvania, the top 50 Rattiest List is based on rodent control service data from upwards of 300 Terminix branches nationally.
This year Los Angeles placed number one on the Rattiest Cities list, a ranking it has held for the last several years. Chicago and New York were rated at number two and three respectively.
Five out of the top ten cities were based along either the East coast or in the Midwest, while nine cities in the West made it to the top fifty.
In most of those Western cities, calls for rodent control in the last year were on the increase. Thus, Denver and Dallas have moved up by three and two places respectively over 2025.
Houston has also seen more rodent control action, jumping from the 23rd spot last year to slot number 14 this year. Albuquerque, meanwhile, saw one of the biggest jumps on the list, going from slot number 43 last year to number 31 this year. The Duke City’s Rattiest status, in fact, has been on a general upward trajectory: in 2022 it didn’t even make the top 50.
Phoenix, at the same time, didn’t make the top 50 list at all last year, and this year only came in at 46.
In ranking Los Angeles at number one, Orkin said the City of Angels’ “year-round mild weather, dense neighborhoods and abundant access to food, water, and shelter, create conditions where rats and mice can thrive.”
While rats, according to an essay published last year in the journal Science Advances, cause an estimated $27 billion in damages each year in the U.S., all hope is not lost. In New York, rat sightings have decreased by nearly 25% this year, a decline thought to be due to the introduction of specialized trash bins that can hold dozens of large plastic trash bags.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said that he wants to see what are called “Empire Bins” installed across the city by 2031.
October 20, 2026
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
