After 10 Years: Chicago’s No Longer The Rattiest City In The U.S.

I've got to figure that Chicago hasn't been this happy to lose a nickname since the Cubs got rid of "lovable losers" back in 2016. No city wants to be known as the "rattiest" city, and they sure don't want to be stuck with the title for as long as Chicago has been.

For a full decade, the title of "America’s Rattiest City" belonged to Chicago, the top spot in the annual rankings from pest‐control firm Orkin. That reign has now come to an end. In the newly released 2025 list, Los Angeles claimed the #1 spot, pushing Chicago into second place and ending its uninterrupted run at the top.

Orkin's annual list tracks the number of new rodent services (residential and commercial) per metro area. They say a combination of dense alleys, abundant food sources, underground infrastructure, and sheer urban scale helped drive Chicago's long‐standing dominance in the world of rat infestations.

It Looks Like The Warm Weather Of Southern California Is Really Attractive To Rats, More So Than The Frigid Winter Temps That Chicago Endures

Your new number-one city for rats, Los Angeles, has year‐round warmer weather, tons of sprawling neighborhoods that are adjacent to food, trash and human activity, which makes LA a rodent‐friendly environment, according to the Orkin report.

Orkin points out that Chicago moving to #2 doesn’t mean the rat problem is solved by any means. They say it’s a signal that the landscape of rodent pressure across U.S. metropolitan areas may be evolving, which will give other US cities a chance to be embarrassed by being on the rattiest cities list.

While Chicago grabs the headlines for dropping its number-one ranking, Champaign (together with Springfield/Decatur) is also on the list, and its ranking is rising. In the 2025 data from Orkin, Champaign jumped six spots to the #37 ranking on Orkin’s Top 50, showing that rodent activity is a concern even in smaller metro regions.

Let's Take A Look At The Top Ten Rattiest Cities In The Nation

You already know that Los Angeles is number-one, and Chicago is now number-two, so here are the rest, according to Orkin:

1. Los Angeles
2. Chicago
3. New York
4. San Francisco
5. Hartford, Connecticut
6. Washington DC
7. Detroit
8. Philadelphia
9. Minneapolis
10. Denver

Okay, this video may freak or gross you out, but with the current topic, I just had to share it: