Rat Complaints in New York and Chicago: What 311 Shows
Chicago logged 44,181 rat complaints to 311 in 2025 and New York 31,312 rodent complaints, and in both cities the calls run on the same annual cycle: July is the peak and December the trough. Chicago’s swing is the sharper one, with July running at 147 on an index where the average month is 100, against 56 in December. Both cities are also down from their peaks, Chicago by a third since 2021 and New York by a quarter since 2023.
Rodent complaint data is the closest thing America has to a public rodent census. It measures reporting rather than rats, which matters, but it is consistent, it is granular, and two of the country’s largest cities publish it in full. Here is what it shows.
Both cities are past their peak
Chicago peaked in 2021 at 65,897 complaints and has fallen every year since, to 44,181 in 2025. New York peaked later and lower, at 41,748 in 2023, and was at 31,312 in 2025.
The pandemic shape is visible in both. Chicago’s jump from 41,086 in 2019 to 54,068 in 2020 and then 65,897 in 2021 coincides with restaurant closures pushing rodents into residential areas, a pattern widely reported at the time. New York’s 2020 figure, 27,583, is its lowest in the period, which likely reflects reporting behaviour during lockdown rather than fewer rats.
That is the standing caveat with 311 data: it counts calls. A change can mean more rodents, more reporting, or a change in how a city routes and categorises requests.
The calendar is the same in both cities
Chicago’s complaints run from an index of 147 in July to 56 in December, a swing of more than two and a half times between the busiest and quietest months. New York’s curve has the same shape and a gentler slope, peaking at 129 in July against 59 in December.
Three things follow from that curve.
- Rodent pressure is not a winter story, despite the common belief that mice come indoors when it turns cold. Sightings and complaints are a warm-weather phenomenon, when rodents are active outdoors, breeding fastest, and people are outside to see them.
- The autumn drop is steep. Both cities fall sharply from October into December, which is when the seasonal advice to seal entry points is usually issued.
- The quietest month is the best time to do exclusion work, for the same reason.
Worth noting alongside this: employment in the pest control industry follows almost exactly the same annual curve, peaking in July. We measured that separately from federal payroll data in the industry’s July peak.
Where the complaints come from
In New York in 2025, Brooklyn generated the most rodent complaints at 11,045, followed by Manhattan at 8,631, Queens at 5,401, the Bronx at 5,105 and Staten Island at 1,130. Those are raw counts rather than rates, so they track population and building density as much as rodent density.
The city’s own complaint categories are more informative than the totals. Across the full dataset, rat sightings account for 151,480 complaints, conditions attracting rodents 44,901, signs of rodents 26,420 and mouse sightings 17,278. The second category is the interesting one: tens of thousands of calls are about conducive conditions, meaning rubbish, harbourage and food waste, rather than about an animal anyone saw.
What a homeowner or operator should take from it
- Treat rodent work as a summer-peaking service, not a winter one. The complaint data and the industry’s own staffing curve agree.
- Do exclusion in the quiet months. November to February is when pressure is lowest and the work is least disrupted.
- Conducive conditions are the lever. Nearly a fifth of New York’s rodent complaint volume, 44,901 of about 240,000, is explicitly about conditions rather than sightings, which is the part a property owner controls.
- Do not read a city’s complaint count as its rat population. It is a reporting measure, and comparisons between cities are comparisons of two 311 systems as much as two rodent populations.
For what to do once you find evidence, see droppings identification for working out the species, rodent removal costs for treatment, and the cleanup protocol before touching anything. Timing across other pests is in the seasonal pest calendar, and the threshold for calling someone in when to call about mice.
How we did this
We queried New York’s 311 service request dataset for complaints of type Rodent, and Chicago’s 311 service requests for request types containing Rat, aggregating by year, by calendar month and, for New York, by borough. Monthly indices use three full years, 2023 to 2025, so that a single unusual year does not drive the shape. The partial 2026 year is excluded from the annual comparison.
The two cities categorise differently, which is why we have not built a single combined index or declared a winner. Chicago’s rat-related request types and New York’s Rodent complaint type are similar in spirit but not identical in scope, so the honest comparison is between each city’s own shape over time.
Frequently asked questions
Which city has more rats, New York or Chicago?
This data cannot answer that. Chicago logs more rodent complaints, 44,181 against New York’s 31,312 in 2025, but the two cities categorise and route 311 requests differently and New York has roughly three times the population. Complaint counts measure reporting, not rodents.
When are rodent complaints highest?
July in both cities, on three years of data. Chicago’s July index is 147 against a December of 56; New York’s is 129 against 59. The pattern is a warm-weather peak, not the winter influx people often expect.
Are rat problems getting worse?
Not by this measure. Chicago is down about a third from its 2021 peak of 65,897 complaints, and New York is down about a quarter from its 2023 peak of 41,748. Whether that reflects fewer rodents or less reporting cannot be separated from the data alone.
Why do complaints spike in summer if mice come indoors in winter?
Because complaints capture outdoor activity and sightings. Rodents breed fastest and forage most visibly in warm months, and more people are outside to notice them. Indoor mouse activity in autumn is real but generates a different, smaller signal.
What is the best time to do rodent exclusion work?
The quiet months, roughly November to February, when pressure is lowest in both cities’ data. Sealing entry points before the spring build-up is more effective than doing it at the peak.
What does a conditions attracting rodents complaint mean?
It is a report about rubbish, harbourage or food waste rather than a sighting. New York has logged 44,901 of them, which is a substantial share of total rodent complaint volume and the part property owners can directly control.
Which New York borough has the most rodent complaints?
Brooklyn, with 11,045 in 2025, ahead of Manhattan at 8,631. These are raw counts and track population and building density rather than rodent density per head.
Sources
- NYC 311 Service Requests from 2010 to Present, NYC Open Data. data.cityofnewyork.us
- Chicago 311 Service Requests, Chicago Data Portal. data.cityofchicago.org
- Analysis by The Pest Control Brief, September 2026.
