LA Tops Orkin’s 2026 Rattiest Cities List for the second consecutive year, but another major pest control company puts New York City in first place. Orkin’s newly released ranking places Los Angeles ahead of Chicago, New York and San Francisco, while a separate Terminix report ranks New York first and Los Angeles second. Both lists are drawn from pest control service activity rather than a direct count of rats living in each city. The conflicting leaders therefore reveal as much about how the companies compile their rankings as they do about the persistent rodent challenges confronting major American metropolitan areas.
Los Angeles Holds First Place for a Second Year
In its October 13 announcement of the 2026 Rattiest Cities List, Orkin named Los Angeles No. 1 for the second straight year, after the city displaced Chicago from the top spot in 2025. Chicago finished second this year, New York third, San Francisco fourth and Washington, D.C., fifth. Orkin says it based the ranking on new residential rodent treatments recorded from August 9, 2025, through August 9, 2026. The company links rodent activity in Los Angeles to mild weather, dense neighborhoods and access to food, water and shelter. The ranking covers both rats and mice; it is not an independent census of wild rat populations.
Terminix Names New York the No. 1 Rodent City
A separate Terminix ranking updated October 1 tells a different story. It puts New York City first, Los Angeles second, Philadelphia third, San Francisco fourth and Houston fifth. Chicago, which ranked second on the Orkin list, is sixth on the Terminix list. Terminix says it drew on 2025 rodent-service data from more than 300 Rentokil-owned Terminix branches in their designated service areas. The company also explains that its cities are organized around Nielsen Designated Market Areas, which may include surrounding suburbs. That geographic definition is another reason readers should not treat the two lists as interchangeable.
Why Do Orkin and Terminix Disagree?
The answer begins with what each company measures. Orkin counts new residential rodent treatments during a specific twelve-month period ending in August 2026. Terminix analyzes the frequency of rodent service use in its own branch network during 2025, within designated service territories and media markets. The companies have different customer bases, geographic footprints and reporting windows, and neither publicly presents a standardized count of rodents per resident for these rankings. A city can generate more service requests in one network without necessarily having more rodents than a city ranked higher by another provider. The sensible interpretation is that both companies identify substantial rodent-service demand in Los Angeles and New York, not that either has scientifically established the nation’s largest rat population.
California Appears Across Both Lists
San Francisco ranks fourth on both companies’ lists, one of the clearest points of agreement. Orkin also places Sacramento at No. 21 and San Diego at No. 33, making California the state with the most cities on its top 50 list, at four. Terminix includes Sacramento at No. 15, Palm Springs at No. 30, Fresno at No. 40 and San Diego at No. 45 in addition to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Those numbers are a reminder that rodent-control demand extends beyond a single downtown district. However, higher rankings may also reflect the structure and availability of each company’s services, so comparing individual positions requires caution.
Other Cities Make Unexpected Moves
Orkin reports that Albuquerque jumped twelve positions to No. 31, the largest rise on its 2026 list. Nashville climbed ten positions to No. 30, while Albany, New York, also rose ten places to No. 39. Houston moved up nine positions to No. 14. The top four, by contrast, remained unchanged from the previous Orkin ranking. Those shifts may highlight changes in where Orkin performed new residential treatments, but they are not by themselves proof of equivalent changes in the actual number of rodents. Year-to-year movement is useful as a signal for further local investigation rather than an exact measure of a city’s rat population.
What Rodent Activity Means for Homeowners
Rats and mice can exploit readily available food, water and sheltered nesting spaces in residential areas. Residents often discover signs before seeing an animal, including droppings, gnaw marks, torn food packaging and scratching sounds behind walls. A visible rat outdoors does not by itself establish a household infestation, but repeated activity near doors, garbage storage and utility openings deserves attention. PestMarket’s Rat Control Guide explains common warning signs and practical exclusion steps, while its Mouse Control Guide covers the differences in identifying and addressing smaller rodents. Correctly identifying the animal matters because entry points and control methods are not identical.
How to Reduce the Risk Around Your Property
Prevention starts with making homes less accessible and less rewarding to rodents. Store food in secure containers, close trash lids tightly, clean up spilled pet food, repair leaks and inspect gaps around doors, vents and utility lines. Reduce accessible clutter and nesting material near foundations, and avoid handling droppings by dry sweeping or vacuuming. Seal entry points with materials appropriate to the opening and consider professional help when activity persists or rodents are nesting in inaccessible spaces. High placement on a city ranking should prompt awareness, not panic: local signs of activity and conditions on an individual property are more useful for deciding what action to take than a company’s nationwide league table.
What the 2026 Rankings Actually Tell Us
Los Angeles is first on Orkin’s 2026 ranking and New York City is first on Terminix’s separately compiled list. That apparent contradiction has a straightforward explanation: these are commercial service-data rankings using different time periods, territories and customer records. Both indicate notable demand for rodent control in major cities, and both place Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco near the top. Neither can establish how many rats live in those cities or which is objectively the most infested. For readers, the more important lesson is to understand what a ranking measures and focus on evidence of rodent activity where they live.