Hundreds of callouts for rats were made by the council last year, figures have found.

Despite many councils making huge efforts to reduce the problem, many residents of Greater Manchester are still plagued by the pesky vermin in and around their homes.

Rat problems hit some areas worse than others – which is why the Local Democracy Reporting Service has created the "Greater Manchester Rat League for 2022".

After submitting Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to each borough council, data has revealed the worst offenders in the region for rat problems last year.

Authorities record the data in different ways so the statistics have been broken down by ward, postcode and area – with some clarifying if the reports came from inside or outside the house (external or internal callouts).

It is important to note that some areas are bigger and also have more densely populated communities, which may affect the figures. 

The data shows that there were more reports from inside the home than outside.

Wigan had the most callouts, but claim that this was due to their three visit approach tripled their figures.

In Bury, 640 callouts were made.

The borough is not a big hitter on this list and sits very much in the medium ground. The council did not offer a comment on the data provided by the FOI request.

Breakdown of data by area:

Bury

Internal callouts: 176

External callouts: 108

Whitefield

Internal callouts: 49

External callouts: 40

Prestwich

Internal callouts: 48

External callouts: 41

Radcliffe

Internal callouts: 70

External callouts: 36

Ramsbottom

Internal callouts: 26

External callouts: 15

Tottington

Internal callouts: 17

External callouts: 14

Here is the rat callouts in 2022 league table for each of the 10 Greater Manchester boroughs:

Wigan – 3,605

Manchester – 2,407

Salford – 1,000

Stockport – 832

Rochdale – 771

Bury – 640

Bolton – 600

Oldham – 431

Trafford – 363

Tameside – 286

For each borough there is a breakdown of data per ward/area as well as each individual council’s response to the numbers revealed by the FOI.

Not every council responded and each gave their own verdict on how they deal with vermin.