International. China's cities are subject to the world's largest CCTV surveillance, according to a new analysis by Comparitech. However, some residents living in cities across the UK and India will also find themselves surrounded by a large number of attentive eyes, as indicated by analysis of the number of public CCTV cameras in the world's 150 most populous cities.
Another fact of the report reveals that Guadalajara, Mexico (position 49), is the only Latin American city that is among the list of the 50 most monitored cities in the world, with a total of 25,672 CCTV cameras, which means 4.96 CCTV cameras per thousand inhabitants.
Some key findings from the report:
- 18 of the 20 most guarded cities are in China
- London and Hyderabad were the only cities outside China to rank in the top 20, with London ranking third and Hyderabad sixteenth.
By 2021, more than one billion surveillance cameras will be installed worldwide, according to the latest IHS Markit report.
Globally, there are already 770 million cameras in use, of which 54% are in China.
- The analysis found little correlation between the number of public CCTV cameras and crime or security.
The 20 most monitored cities in the world
According to the number of cameras per 1,000 inhabitants, these cities are among the 20 most monitored in the world:
- Taiyuan, China - 465,255 cameras for 3,891,127 people = 119.57 cameras per 1,000 people
- Wuxi, China: 300,000 cameras for 3,256,020 people = 92.14 cameras per 1,000 people
- London, England (United Kingdom): 627,727 cameras for 9,304,016 people = 67.47 cameras per 1,000 people
- Changsha, China: 260,000 cameras for 4,577,723 people = 56.80 cameras per 1,000 people
- Beijing, China: 1,150,000 cameras for 20,462,610 people = 56.20 cameras per 1,000 people
- Hangzhou, China: 400,000 cameras for 7,642,147 people = 52.34 cameras per 1,000 people
- Kunming, China: 200,000 cameras for 4,443,186 people = 45.01 cameras per 1,000 people
- Qingdao, China: 250,000 cameras for 5,619,977 people = 44.48 cameras per 1,000 people
- Xiamen, China: 150,000 cameras for 3,720,141 people = 40.32 cameras per 1,000 people
- Harbin, China: 250,000 cameras for 6,387,195 people = 39.14 cameras per 1,000 people
- Suzhou, China: 270,000 cameras for 7,069,992 people = 38.19 cameras per 1,000 people
- Shanghai, China - 1,000,000 cameras for 27,058,480 people = 36.96 cameras per 1,000 people
- Urumqi, China: 160,000 cameras for 4,368,865 people = 36.62 cameras per 1,000 people
- Chengdu, China: 310,000 cameras for 9,135,768 people = 33.93 cameras per 1,000 people
- Shenzhen, China: 400,000 cameras for 12,356,820 people = 32.37 cameras per 1,000 people
- Hyderabad, India: 300,000 cameras for 10,004,144 people = 29.99 cameras per 1,000 people
- Ji'nan, China: 160,000 cameras for 5,360,185 people = 29.85 cameras per 1,000 people
- Shenyang, China: 200,000 cameras for 7,220,104 people = 27.70 cameras per 1,000 people
- Hefei, China: 113,795 cameras for 4,241,514 people = 26.83 cameras per 1,000 people
- Tianjin, China: 350,000 cameras for 13,589,078 people = 25.76 cameras per 1,000 people
Source: Comparitech
