Rodent Sightings Jump 29% In NYC In 2021: Study

NEW YORK, NY — Manhattan is winning New York’s rat race, for now.

The borough just earned the dubious distinction of having the most rat sightings and complaints per person, according to a new Renthop.com study. But the other boroughs aren’t too far behind in a city where rodent sightings have increased by 29% in a year.

As of Nov. 10, 2021, New York’s 311 hotline has received over 25,000 reports of rat sightings across the five boroughs – 28.7% more than in 2020, according to the Renthop study which also found 60% of the city’s neighborhoods saw rises in reported rodent complaints and sightings.

Since the start of the pandemic, New York and cities across the nation have been seeing a rat surge that has been attributed to several factors: more people inside all day to notice the pests, restaurant closures forcing rats to find new food sources, inspectors suddenly overwhelmed with many other tasks, and more.

Whatever the reason, the rats are just about everywhere and they’re multiplying. Manhattan tops the list of rodent complaints per person, with 7,217 complaints equalling 4.26 rodent sightings per 1,000 people, a 34.7% increase over the same period last year.

Brooklynites saw the most actual rodents: the borough reported 9,749 sightings. It also reported a 37.8% increase in sightings from 2020, the largest year-to-year increase of any borough.

In third place was the Bronx, with 4,682 complaints, a 29.5% increase from 2020.

In Queens, there were 3,596 complaints, just a slight increase over 2020. Staten Island came in last, and was the only borough to report a decrease in complaints.

Although rat complaints usually spike in the summer, October 2021 marked the worst month in the past six years, according to Renthop, with 3,282 complaints – a whopping 62.7% more than October 2020.

The neighborhoods with the most amount of complaints were:

• Harlem (South), Manhattan – 357 rat complaints in 2020, 822 in 2021
• Upper West Side-Manhattan Valley, Manhattan – 351 rat complaints in 2020, 440 in 2020
• Prospect Heights, Brooklyn – 208 rat complaints in 2020, 304 in 2021
• Upper East Side-Yorkville, Manhattan – 242 rat complaints in 2020, 361 in 2021
• East Village, Manhattan – 194 rat complaints in 2020, 416 in 2018

Click on the interactive map below to see how your neighborhood is faring in the rat race:

Click here for the full study.

Related:

• Oh, Rats: NYC Rodent Sightings Surge In 2021
• NYC Is Not Most Rat Infested City In US, Shocking Study Finds
• Trash, Closed Restaurants Make New York 3rd Rattiest City In U.S.