However, there are also those that feel the presence of cameras creates added safety. The ubiquity of surveillance cameras can be unnerving to some, as they represent diminishing privacy. In most instances, cameras are in a fixed position-and some of the more invasive aspects of CCTV, like accompanying facial recognition technology, are not universal yet. The Chinese capital has the highest number of CCTV cameras in total, at just over 1.1 million installed in the city.Īlthough CCTV cameras have become extremely prevalent in cities around the world, this does not mean these cameras are seeing and recognizing our every move. London is the only non-Asian city to crack the list with 399 CCTV cameras per square kilometer.īeijing ranks in tenth place. Here’s a closer look at the world’s top 10 cities by CCTV density.

Chennai, India has 657 cameras per square kilometer, making it the number one city in the world in terms of surveillance. So how many of us are being watched? China and India are the countries with the highest densities of CCTV surveillance cameras in urban areas.

In the above interactive graphic, Surfshark maps out how prevalent CCTV surveillance cameras are in the world’s 130 most populous cities. In fact, it only took us 79 years to go from one camera to nearly one billion of these devices. Since the world’s first CCTV camera was installed in Germany in 1942, the number of surveillance cameras around the world has grown immensely.

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