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Ranked: The World’s Most Surveilled Cities

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Surveillance is becoming a defining feature of modern cities, but the level of monitoring varies significantly from one urban center to the next.

In Los Angeles, the number of cameras exceeds 46,000. Hyderabad, India has around 900,000. This visualization ranks major global cities by the number of CCTV cameras per 1,000 people using data from Comparitech, showing where surveillance is most concentrated.

As governments and municipalities expand surveillance for security and smart city initiatives, these rankings offer a snapshot of where camera density—and public surveillance—is highest today.

Cities With the Most Cameras Per Capita

At the top of the list, Hyderabad, India leads globally with 79 cameras per 1,000 people, followed by Indore (72) and Bangalore (41). Collectively, they hold over 1.7 million cameras.

It’s worth noting that data for specific cities in China is unavailable owing to government secrecy. However, it’s estimated to have 494 cameras per capita, or nearly one camera for every two people.

The table below shows the number of CCTV cameras per capita, highlighting the scale of public surveillance around the world.

Pakistan’s capital, Lahore, ranks fourth globally at 28 cameras per 1,000 people. With 410,300 cameras in total, facial recognition is often linked to national databases in real time.

Moscow, Russia ranks in sixth globally, with 20 cameras per capita. As one of the most pervasive surveillance systems worldwide, Moscow is blanketed in 250,000 cameras, which use facial recognition to identify protestors, journalists, and dissidents.

Across the West, London is the most highly surveilled cities, ranking in 11th overall. Following next in line is Los Angeles, with the number of cameras increasing by roughly 34% since 2022.

The Rise of Surveillance Infrastructure

Beyond Los Angeles, several cities have mirrored this expansion of surveillance systems in public spaces.

Notably, the number of cameras jumped 104% in Hyderabad, 17% in Moscow, and 3.6% in London since 2022. At the same time, these systems are increasingly using machine learning algorithms to identify patterns, automate profiles, and detect “suspicious activity”.

Not only do vast networks of cameras allow government authorities to detect traffic or parking violations, they provide access to people’s movements, raising questions of privacy and data accumulation in an age of AI-powered monitoring.

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Ranked: Countries With the Most Patents

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A handful of countries dominate global patent activity, with a steep drop-off after the top ranks. China alone accounts for a massive share, holding millions more active patents than any other country.

This visualization ranks countries by total active patents using the latest available data from the World Intellectual Property Organization for 2024.

China Is Miles Ahead on Active Patents

China leads with 5.7 million active patents, followed by the United States and Japan, and together the top three exceed the rest of the world combined.

South Korea takes the fourth spot for most active patents, with 1.3 million. It underscores Asia’s strong presence among the world’s leading innovation hubs.

It’s unsurprising to see these countries in the top ranks, given the size of their economies and populations, though South Korea becomes an outlier through this lens.

Germany is the top European country, at 963,941, but active patents dip significantly from there to 757,026 for France.

Myanmar, which brought in its first ever law dedicated to patent protection and innovation in 2024, sits at the bottom of the dataset with four patents. It is only one of two — the other being Bhutan, which has six active patents — to have fewer than 10 active patents.

Most Countries Contribute Little to Global Innovation

Global patent ownership is highly concentrated, with a small number of countries accounting for the majority of innovation output.

While countries like China, the U.S., and Japan dominate the landscape, most nations contribute relatively small numbers of active patents. This gap highlights differences in research capacity, industrial scale, and investment in innovation.

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To learn more about innovation, check out this graphic which ranks top startup hubs.