Cities in China are under the heaviest CCTV surveillance in the world, according to a new analysis by Comparitech. But globally, many more cities are

Surveillance camera statistics: which cities have the most CCTV cameras?

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2023-02-07 15:00:19

Cities in China are under the heaviest CCTV surveillance in the world, according to a new analysis by Comparitech. But globally, many more cities are under increasing amounts of surveillance.

In 2019, IHS Markit predicted that there would be 1 billion surveillance cameras worldwide by the end of last year (2021). According to the same report, 54 percent of the world’s cameras are located in China, which would equate to 540 million CCTV cameras as of 2021. With a population of 1.46 billion (based on the most recent UN estimate), this means there are 372.8 cameras per 1,000 people in China.

This year, we have used this ratio to create estimated CCTV camera figures per Chinese city. Due to wildly different estimates and old figures, this seemed the most accurate and fairest way to try and gauge the sheer volume of camera figures in China.

While China yet again dominates this study for its vast surveillance tactics, there are other countries whose surveillance tactics are of growing concern, including several Indian cities, London, and Los Angeles and New York in the US.