Six In Ten Have Seen
Rats In Toronto
Most commonly sighted in downtown and Scarborough
In a random sampling
of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 868 Toronto adults, slightly
more than 6-in-10 say they have seen a rat in the city (61%), while 4-in-10
have not (39%). Incidence of having seen rats is most common to younger
respondents (35 to 44 - 70%) but not so much to the oldest (53%), the wealthier
($80K to $100K - 68%), in East York (67%) and the old city of York (68%), the
best educated (post grad - 66%), cyclists (69%) and Rob Ford voters (66%).
Rats most commonly seen downtown
In total, 3-in-10
Torontonians have seen rats downtown (29%), while about one tenth have seen
them in Scarborough (8%). While close to one half of those living downtown have
seen rats there (46%), incidence of seeing rats by residents of other Toronto
regions in their neighbourhoods varies between a quarter and a third.
“It is interesting
to see that the youngest and the oldest are less likely to have seen rats in
Toronto than those in the Generation X age band. This may speak to an era when
rats were more common in Toronto, especially downtown" said Forum Research
President, Dr. Lorne Bozinoff.
Lorne Bozinoff,
Ph.D. is the president and founder of Forum Research. He can be reached at
lbozinoff@forumresearch.com or at (416) 960-9603.
