These are the world’s most heavily surveilled cities in 2020 (Global CCTV study)

Panopticon Cities of the World

In 1785, social theorist Jeremy Bentham completed his first design for the Panopticon. This prison building was configured so that the guard at the center would always be able to see every prisoner around him. The prisoners would never know who he was watching – so in theory, they’d behave as though being watched, i.e., responsibly! The Panopticon, Bentham claimed, was a “new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example.”

Today the Panopticon has escaped the prison. It’s in our CCTV cameras and every digital trace we leave. While some cities have more blind spots than others, contemporary theorists suggest that we’ve internalized the need to conform to society’s standards. CCTV makes us feel safer and asserts a sense of community responsibility. Is the price – our privacy and the risk of institutional abuse – too much to pay?

2021 is a big moment for CCTV: the world’s one-billionth surveillance camera is likely to be installed by the end of the year. A single CCTV camera per every eight humans on Earth.

But of course, it doesn’t quite work like that. Each camera doesn’t follow a set group of people around, creating a neatly edited portrait. The cameras are (mostly) fixed in position, and some countries have many more cameras than others.

In China and the US, for example, there is already one camera per 4.1 and 4.6 people, respectively – way ahead of the curve. But what if it is more pertinent to think of how cameras are distributed spatially? After all, more cameras across a city with a smaller footprint makes for greater coverage of everybody’s comings and goings.

The increasing levels of CCTV surveillance could have direct implication to people's privacy, so Surfshark wanted to know which cities have the highest number of CCTV cameras per square kilometer. We gathered the numbers, crunched them, and produced a series of new visualizations to illustrate just how pervasive surveillance cameras are in the 130 most populous international cities.

China and India stand out as the countries with the highest-density surveillance cities. Of course, both nations are home to a lot of very populous cities, which is why so many of the 130 ‘dots’ are based there. All the same, Chinese and Indian cities dominate the top 10 for camera density, and Chinese cities continue to dominate the top 30.

On the positive side, China’s pervasive surveillance reassures its public: “Having these cameras everywhere makes me feel safe,” as one interviewee told TIME. On the other hand, China’s blanket CCTV coverage and its integration of smart systems put citizens at the mercy of justice-dealing algorithms that ‘predict’ crimes and order preventive arrests. This situation puts CCTV’s opposing themes of ‘liberty’ vs. ‘security’ into stark relief.

How Does Your City’s CCTV Landscape Compare to the Rest of the World?

Finally, here is Surfshark’s data in full. Compare the CCTV landscape and crime rate of your closest big cities with the 150 others from around the world.

To find out exactly how many CCTV cameras there are in the world's 150 most populous cities, we consulted over 100 various sources, including Reuters, Global Government Forum and 360kuai.

Then we used WorldPopulationReview.com to find out the population of each city, and Wikipedia to find out the area in km2. We then used that data to calculate the number of cameras per 1 km2.

The science of CCTV is a contentious issue. Does the reduction in crime justify the intrusion into our privacy? Are the authorities protecting us or controlling us? Here are the stats for all the cities in our study to make that grainy picture a bit clearer.

 

CITY	COUNTRY	CCTV CAMERAS	CCTV CAMERAS PER 1 KM2	CCTV CAMERAS PER 1000 PEOPLE	CRIME INDEX

Abidjan	IVORY COAST	1,024	2.43	0.2	55.46
Addis Ababa	ETHIOPIA	140	0.27	0.03	47.34
Ahmedabad	INDIA	6,281	3.37	0.78	30.97
Alexandria	EGYPT	122	0.05	0.02	39.23
Antananarivo	MADAGASCAR	200	2.35	0.06	66.12
Asuncion	PARAGUAY	668	5.71	0.2	49.34
Athens	GREECE	10,847	26.33	3.44	50.51
Baghdad	IRAQ	120,000	178.31	16.8	65.48
Bangalore	INDIA	1,301	1.83	0.11	53.59
Bangkok	THAILAND	57,770	36.83	5.48	41.23
Barcelona	SPAIN	7,200	71.01	1.29	45.39
Beijing	CHINA	1,150,000	277.51	56.2	34.27
Bekasi	INDONESIA	19	0.09	0.01	35.85
Belo Horizonte	BRAZIL	3,279	11.62	0.54	64.8
Berlin	GERMANY	17,464	19.6	4.9	40.86
Bogotá	COLOMBIA	6,443	20.96	0.59	62.02
Brasilia	BRAZIL	3,444	0.59	0.74	61.35
Buenos Aires	ARGENTINA	15,700	77.34	1.04	62.07
Busan	SOUTH KOREA	780	1.01	0.23	23.95
Cairo	EGYPT	750	0.24	0.04	49.45
Campinas	BRAZIL	640	0.8	0.19	66.58
Cape Town	SOUTH AFRICA	1,759	0.71	0.38	73.67
Casablanca	MOROCCO	2,850	12.95	0.76	55.02
Changchun	CHINA	100,000	53.91	22.59	23.82
Changsha	CHINA	260,000	216.7	56.8	21.38
Chengdu	CHINA	310,000	350.04	33.93	23.83
Chennai	INDIA	280,000	657.28	25.52	40.37
Chittagong	BANGLADESH	660	0.32	0.13	65.85
Chongqing	CHINA	290,000	3.52	18.27	27.81
Curitiba	BRAZIL	1,249	3.91	0.34	63.42
Dakar	SENEGAL	473	5.7	0.15	37.61
Dalian	CHINA	32,000	21.01	5.7	17.53
Delhi	INDIA	429,500	289.42	14.18	58.91
Dhaka	BANGLADESH	16,000	52.29	0.76	64.33
Dongguan	CHINA	110,000	44.62	14.85	46.73
Durban	SOUTH AFRICA	514	2.28	0.16	80.81
Ekurhuleni	SOUTH AFRICA	1,500	0.76	0.39	0
Fortaleza	BRAZIL	2,593	8.23	0.64	78.38
Foshan	CHINA	100,000	25.99	13.65	37.35
Fukuoka	JAPAN	1,076	3.13	0.19	18.59
Fuzhou	CHINA	10,000	8.05	2.71	30.21
Guadalajara	MEXICO	25,672	170.01	4.96	62.69
Guangzhou	CHINA	300,000	78.06	22.55	40.57
Guiyang	CHINA	20,000	8.32	6.03	0
Hangzhou	CHINA	400,000	50	52.34	21.46
Hanoi	VIETNAM	4,400	13.77	0.94	37.74
Harbin	CHINA	250,000	410.51	39.14	26.36
Hefei	CHINA	113,795	135.71	26.83	12.35
Ho Chi Minh City	VIETNAM	37,813	18.35	4.4	53.89
Hong Kong	HONG KONG	50,000	18.15	6.62	21.57
Hyderabad	INDIA	300,000	480	29.99	44.02
Istanbul	TURKEY	109,000	42.3	7.18	47.85
Jaipur	INDIA	1,000	2.07	0.26	34.58
Jakarta	INDONESIA	7,000	1.98	0.65	53.63
Ji'nan	CHINA	160,000	22.31	29.85	14.08
Johannesburg	SOUTH AFRICA	15,450	4.6	2.67	80.4
Kabul	AFGHANISTAN	108	0.39	0.03	76.52
Kampala	UGANDA	2,923	15.47	0.89	54.42
Karachi	PAKISTAN	64,449	17.05	4	54.72
Khartoum	SUDAN	4,000	0.18	0.69	34.08
Kochi	INDIA	1,000	10.54	0.32	41.08
Kolkata	INDIA	13,800	66.96	0.93	47.52
Kozhikode	INDIA	76	0.64	0.02	46.21
Kuala Lumpur	MALAYSIA	1,000	4.12	0.13	65.01
Kunming	CHINA	200,000	280.9	45.01	29.17
Lagos	NIGERIA	n/a	0	0	64.53
Lahore	PAKISTAN	10,000	5.64	0.79	39.51
Lanzhou	CHINA	25,200	84.56	8.18	23.53
Lima	PERU	7,547	9.43	0.7	69.45
London	ENGLAND (UK)	627,707	399.27	67.47	52.63
Los Angeles	UNITED STATES	22,678	17.42	5.65	47.69
Luanda	ANGOLA	700	6.03	0.08	67.32
Lucknow	INDIA	10,800	30.95	2.94	51.84
Madrid	SPAIN	29,000	47.99	4.38	29.79
Manila	PHILIPPINES	300	0.2	0.02	64.43
Mashhad	IRAN	584	1.66	0.18	46.5
Medellín	COLOMBIA	2,430	6.38	0.61	51.65
Melbourne	AUSTRALIA	9,363	0.94	1.88	44.7
Mexico City	MEXICO	87,000	58.59	3.99	68.97
Milan	ITALY	8,304	45.69	2.64	43.34
Monterrey	MEXICO	4,000	4.18	0.82	49.29
Montréal	CANADA	3,830	2.96	0.91	29.23
Moscow	RUSSIA	193,000	76.86	15.39	38.8
Mumbai	INDIA	9,800	16.25	0.48	43.31
Nairobi	KENYA	2,000	2.87	0.42	60.02
Nanchang	CHINA	35,000	51.02	9.73	26.47
Nanjing	CHINA	220,000	157.29	24.87	13.24
Nanning	CHINA	37,000	1.67	9.59	22.3
New York	UNITED STATES	31,490	25.97	3.78	46.29
Osaka	JAPAN	2,120	9.51	0.11	27.9
Paris	FRANCE	26,834	254.59	2.44	52.42
Porto Alegre	BRAZIL	3,342	6.73	0.81	75.56
Puebla	MEXICO	6,268	8.98	1.96	63.06
Pune	INDIA	11,320	34.17	1.71	41.09
Qingdao	CHINA	250,000	153.19	44.48	8.25
Recife	BRAZIL	2,080	9.54	0.5	76.09
Rio de Janeiro	BRAZIL	14,000	11.47	1.04	77.33
Riyadh	SAUDI ARABIA	150	0.08	0.02	27.25
Rome	ITALY	8,155	6.35	1.92	51.67
Salvador	BRAZIL	4,510	6.51	1.17	75.47
Santiago	CHILE	4,636	7.23	0.69	54.77
Santo Domingo	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	1,369	13.11	0.41	67
Seoul	SOUTH KOREA	40,883	67.55	4.1	26.65
Shanghai	CHINA	1,000,000	250	36.96	35.6
Shenyang	CHINA	200,000	124.22	27.7	22.18
Shenzhen	CHINA	400,000	228.83	32.37	32.79
Shijiazhuang	CHINA	54,000	104.08	13.12	21.32
Singapore	SINGAPORE	86,000	118.51	14.49	33.31
St. Petersburg	RUSSIA	55,064	38.27	10.07	39.13
Surat	INDIA	3,180	9.74	0.44	36
Suzhou	CHINA	270,000	98.43	38.19	15.09
Sydney	AUSTRALIA	60,000	4.85	12.18	33.36
São Paulo	BRAZIL	4,823	0.41	0.22	70.41
Taiyuan	CHINA	465,255	318.67	119.57	51.47
Tangshan Hebei	CHINA	4,000	2.94	1.17	0
Tehran	IRAN	2,083	1.74	0.23	53.63
Tel Aviv	ISRAEL	4,306	24.47	1.03	25.26
Thrissur	INDIA	216	2.13	0.07	23.17
Tianjin	CHINA	350,000	30.15	25.76	29.17
Tokyo	JAPAN	39,504	18	1.06	23.19
Toronto	CANADA	17,199	9.59	2.78	39.3
Urumqi	CHINA	160,000	274.44	36.62	26.72
Wenzhou	CHINA	55,144	44.35	15.22	22.79
Wuhan	CHINA	200,000	130.89	23.91	23.97
Wuxi	CHINA	300,000	64.82	92.14	7.84
Xiamen	CHINA	150,000	385.13	40.32	20.71
Xian	CHINA	45,000	41.36	5.62	16.85
Xinbei (New Taipei City)	TAIWAN	35,000	30.7	7.96	19.03
Yangon	MYANMAR	2,995	5	0.56	44.16
Zhengzhou	CHINA	100,000	97.66	18.79	21.84