This longstanding claim has been circulating for over a century, but its origins remain a mystery. Experts unanimously debunk this myth as completely untrue, unless you happen to reside in a sewer system.
One of the challenges is the limited knowledge about the secretive behaviors and populations of rats.
According to the 2018 Natural England report, Britain’s rat population is estimated to be 7 million, while the British Pest Control Association suggests it could be as high as 120 million.
Regardless of the exact numbers, rats in the UK are not evenly distributed. Certain regions, like parts of the Scottish Highlands, have no rat presence at all, and encountering a rat in the middle of the English countryside is rare unless you’re near a barn.
Rats are seen as symbiotic creatures, living in close proximity to humans and feeding off their resources. Even in urban settings like London, the true rat population remains a mystery.
In 2012, Dave Cowan, head of the wildlife program at the Food and Environmental Research Agency, stated in the BBC that around 3.5 million rats inhabit British cities.
However, some pest control experts, albeit biased, claim that London alone harbors 20 million rats.
To put this into perspective, if the 20 million rats were evenly spread across London’s 1,572km2 area, each rat would cover 78.6 million square feet. This would suggest that you are likely within 5 meters of a rat at any given time.
With a more conservative estimate of 3 million rats, the nearest one would be approximately 13 meters away.
Dispelling a popular belief, a 2023 study revealed that there are actually fewer than 3 million rats in New York City, roughly equating to one rat for every three residents. Read more here.
Rats tend to congregate where food sources are plentiful, such as near trash bins, eateries, and markets, as well as in less traversed areas like sewers, abandoned structures, and construction sites.
They typically stay at ground level and within 200 meters of their birthplace, making it relatively feasible to avoid encountering them in certain areas.
This article addresses the question posed by Esther Lamb of Worthing: “Is it true that you are always within 6 feet of a rat?”
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Source: www.sciencefocus.com
