CCTV cameras can be found in abundance in populous and highly developed cities. They are less likely to be found in villages or remote areas. While the downside of having CCTV cameras is that it invades people's privacy, there are plenty of advantages as well. Of course, CCTV cameras play a major role in maintaining the security of public spaces. Not only that, but they can also provide shreds of evidence regarding theft or other crimes, should such unfortunate events occur.
China is host to the world's largest number of surveilled cities. These cities are jammed with CCTV cameras in almost every nook and cranny. Taiyuan is at the top of these Chinese cities, having allocated 120 CCTV cameras for every thousand citizens. London is the only exception on this list that contains Chinese cities at the top. It makes sense that even within cities, the areas which are not populous wouldn't have many CCTV cameras installed.
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In the United States, however, the trend of CCTV cameras hasn't been as high as it has been in China. The only US city recorded with the highest number of CCTV cameras in Los Angeles, perhaps due to the presence of Hollywood and that too, isn't a very big amount. For every 1,000 citizens in Los Angeles, there are only 6 CCTV cameras.
Although CCTV cameras provide benefits in terms of security, they haven't been able to lower crime rates as such, as per a few conducted surveys. Governments worldwide are carrying on with the installation of CCTV cameras for security purposes, but it is important to remember that these benefits can even turn against the public if the public's privacy is breached and their recordings are misused. With digital data being compromised even on the Internet, there are chances of CCTV camera recordings getting mishandled. Nonetheless, check out the world's top 12 most surveilled cities in the infographic below.
Infographic by: Statista
