Accessibility links
Let's Clear This Up — In New York City, There's Only 1 Rat For Every 4 People Audie Cornish speaks with Jonathan Auerbach, a PhD student in statistics at Columbia University who endeavored to get a better estimate of the New York City rat population.

Animals

Let's Clear This Up — In New York City, There's Only 1 Rat For Every 4 People

Heard on All Things Considered

Let's Clear This Up — In New York City, There's Only 1 Rat For Every 4 People

Listen · 4:05
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/361459548/361459549" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Rats! New York City's Population Might Be Seriously Overestimated

The Two-Way

Rats! New York City's Population Might Be Seriously Overestimated

Audie Cornish speaks with Jonathan Auerbach, a PhD student in statistics at Columbia University who endeavored to get a better estimate of the New York City rat population. Auerbach use data from reports of rats called in on the city's non-emergency number to arrive at his number: 2 million rats in a city of more than 8 million people.