Depending on where you grew up, you may not have realised that CCTV has had a massive impact and presence in society for decades.
We do not really think about the number of times that we will walk or drive past a CCTV camera in our daily routines.
CCTV in the United Kingdom is often seen on businesses, homes, private property and everything in between.
It has become a standard part of our lives and it is not uncommon to pass multiple times on your commute to work or on your days off.
If you live in a capital city, such as London for example, you are likely to have seen cameras almost everywhere you go, but if you are from a small town or the countryside, surveillance technology is a lot less common.
Some of the entities on this list may surprise you and some may be more obvious, a lot of people have certain misconceptions when it comes to CCTV and monitoring, so we will be shedding some light on surveillance in different parts of the world and CCTV in Europe.
Note: all the figures at the time of posting will have some degree of inaccuracy due to every day more CCTV being installed around the world, but will serve as useful and helpful information when determining hot spots of CCTV activity.
In this article, we will briefly look at some of the most heavily surveilled countries, cites and places in Europe and the world. Below is a summary of what we will be exploring in this blog.
- Top CCTV Camera Countries
- Most CCTV Cameras in Europe
- Top CCTV Camera Cities in the World
- Top CCTV Camera Cities in Europe
- Least CCTV Camera Countries
- Most Popular CCTV Companies
What's in this Guide?
Top 10 Countries by Number of CCTV Cameras
All figures are approximate to give a rough idea of the scale of each of the top ten countries’ volume of CCTV cameras deployed.
Not all figures account for personal or private use CCTV but should shed some light on the sizes and volumes of different countries surveillance technology.
The top 10 countries by number of CCTV cameras are:
- China – 200 Million CCTV Cameras
- United States – 50 Million CCTV Cameras
- Germany – 5.2 Million CCTV Cameras
- United Kingdom – 5 Million CCTV Cameras
- Japan – 5 Million CCTV Cameras
- Vietnam – 2.6 Million CCTV Cameras
- France – 1.65 Million CCTV Cameras
- South Korea – 1 Million+ CCTV Cameras
- Netherlands – 1 Million CCTV Cameras
- Australia – 1 Million CCTV Cameras
Which Countries have the Most CCTV Cameras in Europe?
Europe is renowned for being one of the safer continents on the planet, paired with some of the best economies and higher levels of technology than other areas.
These above factors compounded with the fact that there has been a fall in the cost of CCTV installation over the years and deploying CCTV cameras at private properties and it’s not hard to see how Europe is one of the leading places for surveillance technology.
In the UK for example, mass surveillance has been used for years and is rooted in our everyday lives. Think of the last time you went to work or out to town, how many cameras did you go past? And how many were you unaware of?
All of this comes together as a lot of countries have a high amount of CCTV cameras, let’s look at some of the countries with the most CCTV cameras in Europe.
Top 4 European Countries with the Most CCTV Cameras
- Germany
- United Kingdom
- France
- Netherlands
Top 20 Cities by Number of CCTV Cameras
In terms of the top 20 cities by number of CCTV cameras as a per volume figure, you get the following results.
A lot of people will not be surprised to find out that China holds the vast majority of the spots on this list, alongside a few from India and one city in Russia and the capital of the United Kingdom.
Cities with Over 1,000,000 CCTV Cameras in Total
- Beijing – China – 1,150,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Shanghai – China – 1,000,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
Cities with Over 500,000 CCTV Cameras in Total
- London – United Kingdom – 691,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Delhi – India – 551,500 ≈ CCTV Cameras
Cities with Over 250,000 CCTV Cameras in Total
- Taiyuan – China – 465,255 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Hangzhou – China – 400,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Shenzhen – China – 400,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Hyderabad – India – 375,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Tianjin – China – 350,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Chengdu – China – 310,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Wuxi – China – 300,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Guangzhou – China – 300,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Chongqing – China – 290,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Chennai – India – 280,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Suzhou – China – 270,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Changsha – China – 262,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Qingdao – China – 262,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
Cities with Under 250,000 CCTV Cameras in Total
- Harbin – China – 250,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Nanjing – China – 238,000 ≈ CCTV Cameras
- Moscow – Russia – 203,600 ≈ CCTV Cameras
Which Cities have the Most CCTV Cameras in Europe?
Although Europe does not feature much when it comes to the most adoption of CCTV technology across the globe, there are still a lot of cities in Europe that have a lot of CCTV cameras, albeit a lot less than Chinese cities.
Let’s take a look at some of the most surveilled cities in Europe:
- London – this comes as no surprise to anyone who has been to the capital of the United Kingdom. London has almost 70 CCTV cameras per 1000 people in the city, andis one of the most highly surveilled cities in the world.
- Berlin – the second city in Europe is a significant step down with nearer 12 CCTV cameras per 1000 people. This is still a large amount but with around 3.6 million population as opposed to London’s 9 million (approximate), the difference is staggering.
- Warsaw – the capital of Poland takes the bronze medal on the list with just under 8 (7.85) CCTV cameras per 1000 people. Warsaw has under 2,000,000 population and is significantly smaller than the previous two cities.
- Vienna – the fourth most CCTV cameras in a European city goes to Austria’s capital Vienna which has 7.38 CCTV cameras per 1000 people. In addition, the crime rate is significantly lower than the above cities, so could be why they require less cameras.
- Istanbul – another city with over 7 (7.15) CCTV cameras per 1000 people is Istanbul. The largest city in Turkey used to be the country’s hub and epicentre back when it was called Constaninaple, now it is a tourist hotspot and can suffer from higher crime rates.
- Madrid – the Spanish capital falls at the 6th spot with much less than the previous entries at under 4.5 (4.42) cameras per 1000 people. Madrid has a much lower crime rate than some of the other entries on the list, so dictates a lower need for CCTV technology.
- Budapest – with 3.4 CCTV cameras per 1000 people, the capital of Hungary slots in at number 7, a heavily popular tourist destination and one of the most popular cities in Europe means the security has to be higher than other places in Hungary.
- Athens – when a lot of people think of Greece they do not even think that it used to be the centre of society and even the world. In the modern age it is hard to think of such an ancient city to have CCTV but with 3.36 cameras per 1000 people it falls at number 8 in Europe.
- Paris – the city of light used to have a much lower number of CCTV cameras in the capital and the main purpose of these devices was for traffic monitoring and control. Due to recent threats and terror attacks, Paris now has around 3 (3.06) CCTV cameras per 1000 people.
- Sofia – since it became part of the European Union Bulgaria has become a tourist hotspot and the culture has amalgamated with the rest of Europe and the UK. The capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, takes the tenth spot with just over 2 (2.35) cameras per 1000 people.
Which Countries have the Least CCTV Surveillance?
It is hard to determine which countries have the least CCTV remote surveillance as a lot of data is hard to obtain or the records are not open. With this being said, a lot of less stable economies have less CCTV cameras as do lower income countries.
For example some of the largest cities in Africa have very few, if any installed CCTV cameras as per reports. This can be skewed as sometimes private cameras are not included in the total counts.
It is important to note that there is limited data on a lot of these nations and countries so it can be tough to determine a complete picture, however, these countries are renown for having the least amount of technology and connectivity so the data confirms they would be in the bottom percentiles.
Some examples of countries with the least CCTV surveillance are:
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Somalia
- Burundi
- Madagascar
- Ethiopia
- Niger
- Sierra Leone
- Malawi
- Iraq
- Chad
- Mozambique
5 Most Popular CCTV Brands in the World
When it comes to the top brands of CCTV technology around the world, each region and country may have its own preference when it comes to the top supplier.
With this being said, there are definitely some patterns and we can determine what the most popular CCTV brands are around the world just by their volume of sales and units installed.
Hikvision
It is no surprise that a Chinese based surveillance company is top of the list due to the sheer volume of CCTV cameras deployed throughout China.
Hikvision has just under 21% of the global market, which is a huge percentage more than the next competitor.
Axis
The second most popular brand globally in the CCTV market is Axis Communications. The Swedish manufacturer is involved in access control, CCTV cameras and audio devices.
The parent company of Axis is the multinational Canon, hence the huge global pull. Around 12.4% of global sales of security cameras are Axis Communications devices.
Dahua
The third most popular CCTV brand is Dahua, another security company that is headquartered in China.
Dahua account for around 10% of the global security camera sales and are one of the largest CCTV brands on the planet. This could be bloated due to the huge amount of CCTV deployed in China and surrounding countries.
Hanwha Techwin
Originally known as Samsung Techwin, the company branched off from the Samsung ties and became Hanwha Techwin. This South Korean company falls just short of the third place at just shy of 10%.
The Hanwha group is one of the largest groups of companies in South Korea and is a fortune 500 company.
Bosch
Probably the most familiar brand on the list for most people who are not part of the security industry. The Bosch group has a lot of different fingers in a lot of different pies, the section in question is Bosch security and safety systems.
In relation to the other brands on the list, the security arm of Bosch accounts for only around 5.7% of the security camera industry. This is still a huge figure in a multi billion dollar industry, but puts into perspective the scale of these operations.
