Chinese cities are under the heaviest CCTV surveillance in the world, according to a report by British cybersecurity firm Comparitech.
Comparitech came to their findings after analyzing CCTV use in 150 of the world’s most densely populated cities.
The report—published mid-July—cited a previous forecast by British information service provider IHS Markit.
In 2019, IHS Markit predicted that by the end of 2021, there would be approximately 1 billion surveillance cameras worldwide, of which 54 percent would be located in China. That is, with 540 million surveillance cameras installed for a population of 1.46 billion, there are 372.8 cameras for every 1,000 people.
This is a relatively conservative estimate. Another higher estimate by IHS Markit put the number at 626 million CCTV cameras in China, which equates to 432.2 per 1,000 people….