This claim has been around for at least 100 years, but no one quite knows where it originated. Experts agree that unless you live in a sewer, it’s categorically false.
Part of the problem is that we know little about rats’ secretive lives or how many there are. A report by Natural England in 2018 put the British rat population at 7 million, but according to the British Pest Control Association it could be 120 million.
Whatever their number, British rats are not evenly dispersed. They’re completely absent from parts of the Scottish Highlands and you’re unlikely to be near one in the middle of the English countryside unless you’re near a barn. Rats are commensal, meaning they live near humans and their next easy meal.