Rats Rule the City: When Vermin Outnumber Humans
What if the city’s most populous resident isn’t a human at all? Across the world, rodents are quietly challenging human dominance in urban life. From Chicago to Barcelona to Deshnok, the numbers reveal a simple, unnerving truth: rats may outnumber people in places that never sleep. This is a map of cities where vermin rule the streets, kitchens, and sewers—and where human effort struggles to keep them in check.
In This Article:
Barcelona, Spain: 0.12 Rats Per Person After a Long War on Vermin
In 2019, Barcelona’s public health department tested the effectiveness of a long-running deratization program. They spread thousands of traps through the sewers and multiplied the number of captured rats by the length of the sewer network (about 900 kilometers). The result was roughly 200,000 rats, in a district with hundreds of thousands of residents. The ratio of 0.12 rats per person reflects years of hard work, expensive campaigns, and a stubborn ecological reality: the more you chase them, the more they adapt.
Deshnok Temple, India: 25,000 Rats Among 15,000 People
In the central temple of Deshnok, 25,000 rats live among about 15,000 residents. The temple is dedicated to Karni Mata, the goddess of power and victory. Legend says that a living incarnation of the goddess proclaimed that all men after death would be reborn as rats, then return to human form. So the monks feed and care for their furry companions as part of a religious tradition.
Minneapolis, USA: Citizens Take the Fight Into Their Streets
In Minneapolis, residents have decided to act beyond the authorities. They organized an anti-rat patrol, working alongside hunting dogs trained to crush rodents. But even with these efforts, the rat population seems to outpace people: about 3.5 rats for every one person. That’s roughly 1.5 million rats for a city of 400,000, a figure that makes you question who truly runs the town.
Chicago, USA: The City Where Rats Are Ubiquitous in Homes
In Chicago, estimates put the number of rats in homes at around 20 million. Locals say that within two meters of you, there’s almost always a rat. Since 2018, Chicago has officially been named the rat city of the planet, narrowly ahead of New York. Mild winters and a booming tourism economy—about 25 million visitors each year—offer warmth and food, while long-standing waste-management challenges feed rat colonies. Ironically, these tiny, furry opportunists seem better adapted to city life than their human founders.
