3 Michigan Cities Make The List For ‘Rattiest Cities In The U.S.’

Every year pest control company, Orkin puts out a list of the rattiest cities in the United States. This year three Michigan cities are on the list of rattiest cities in the U.S.; Detroit (9), Grand Rapids (25) and Flint (43).

Orkin complies the list by looking at the number of new rodent services, which shows the demand and shows that what businesses and people are trying to do to combat the rats isn't working. The period of time that the survey measured was from September 1, 2022 - August 31, 2023.

For the second year in a row, Chicago ranked as the rattiest city in the U.S, Elsewhere in the top ten Los Angeles, Detroit and Cleveland/Akron all moved up one spot. With New York dropping one spot from two to three. These rankings include residential and business treatments.

They also give a warning, fall is the time of the year when rats attempt to get into houses as they are looking for water, food and to get out of the cold. Rats can enter into holes as small as the size of a quarter, and once they've entered multiply quickly so it's important to act fast once they've entered.

Orkin provided some tips that let you know how to check if you house has been infested by rodents. Some of those things to look out for are; droppings, gnaw marks and scurrying noises. They also offer tips to deter rodents from taking residence in your house, including; decluttering, storing your food and keeping an eye out for points of entry.

I went to Chicago this summer for the first time for Lollapalooza, and did quite a bit of walking around the city and didn't see one rat all weekend. Which means I've seen more rats in Detroit than the "rattiest city in the U.S."

U.S News & World Report has released their list of the 150 Best Places to Live in the United States, and for 2023 - 2024. Four Michigan cities; Lansing (81), Kalamazoo (90), Detroit (114) and Flint (130) were ranked in the bottom half.

In order to come up with the list, data is collected from the United States Census Bureau, the FBI, the United States Department of Labor and U.S. News' internal resources. The data they collected was then weighted based on response to a public survey, where people voted on the most important factors when choosing a place to live. Those factors and their weight were:

Quality of Life (36%), ranks how happy residents are with their day to day lives in each metro area, and includes the following factors:

Value Index (23%), this measures how comfortably residents can afford to live within their means in a metro area and includes the following factors; the Housing Affordability Index and the Price Parity Index.

Desirability Index (22%), whether people want to live in a certain metro area.

Job Index Market (19%) is the final factor and takes into consideration the Unemployment Rate and Average Salary.

To calculate the final overall score, and balance the results, they gave all factors a Z-Score for standard deviation. (You can read more on that at the link below).

Based on this list, the worst place to live in the state of Michigan is Flint followed by Detroit, Kalamazoo and Lansing. Two Michigan cities (Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids) ranked in the top 20, see where here.

If you want to see the full list and methodology you can, at RealEstate.USNews.com

The "worst place" to live in Michigan, Flint had an overall score of 5.7 here how Flint scored: Desirability (4.7), Value (7.6), Job Market (4.4), Quality of Life (5.9), and Net Migration (5.3). See more on their overall score here.

Detroit had an overall score of 6.0, here is the breakdown: Desirability (4.9), Value (6.9), Job Market (5.8), Quality of Life (6.1) and Net Migration (5). See how that score came to be here.

Kalamazoo also scored an overall score of 6.2, here is how that was broken down: Desirability (5.1), Value (7.3), Job Market (7.3), Quality of Life (6.5) and Net Migration (5.1). You can read more on their score here.

Lansing scored an overall score of 6.2, here is how they scored in each individual category: Desirability (5), Value (7.2), Job Market (5.6), Quality of Life (6.6) and Net Migration (5.4). You can read more on their score here.