NYC rat population grows to 3 million

PHOTO: CHANAWAT PHADWICHIT/ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS/GETTY IMAGES

The rat population of New York City has grown to 3 million, according to new research from M and M Pest Control.

To get this number, the research team used the same methodology as a New York statistician named Jonathan Auerbach who estimated that there were as many as 2 million rats living in the Big Apple.

To reach this number, he used publicly available data on rat sightings reported to local emergency contact number 311 between 2010 and 2011 as a proxy for capture-recapture, a sampling method used by ecologists to estimate animal populations in the wild.

More than a decade later, the M and M research team replicated Auerbach’s methods with the latest data on rat sightings in 2022 and 2023. The results show that there are now as many as 3 million rats in New York City.

According to the team’s statistical analysis, there were 59,384 (±1952) rat-inhabited lots in 2022, which is 7 percent of all lots in the city. Assuming that each lot supports up to 50 rats, that means New York City now has as many as 3 million rats (±100,000).

That’s an increase of nearly 1 million rats in a decade (up 42 percent since 2010). Manhattan had the biggest change in rat population (up 66 percent), followed by Brooklyn (56 percent) and the Bronx (54 percent).

Check out a breakdown of how the M and M Pest Control team calculated the rat population reaching 3 million. CHART: M AND M PEST CONTROL

This chart provides some insights into how large-scale events affected the rodent population. CHART: M AND M PEST CONTROL

At press time, the city has not commented on the findings, according to PIX11.

In July, New York City released its next steps in the ongoing effort to control its rodent population, which involves getting bags of trash off city sidewalks and into covered containers instead.

First, the Adams administration is publishing a final rule requiring restaurants and other food-related businesses put their trash in secure containers.

Second, the city will push to expand the containerization requirements to all chain businesses with five or more locations in New York City.

Together, the regulations are expected to impact 25 percent of businesses across the five boroughs, the city said. These businesses that produce about 4 million pounds of waste every day.