A single London borough – Hackney – has more CCTV cameras than the UK’s five most watched cities combined.
Bristol, Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Chelmsford and Liverpool collectively have fewer cameras than Hackney’s 2,246.
This is one striking fact to emerge from the interactive infographic below, put together by digital marketing agency Aira and electronics distributor RS Components.
The graphic reveals how many cameras are installed at the most watched UK cities, towns and London boroughs.
Data was collected from Big Brother Watch.
Other key facts and figures
- Bristol is the most watched city in the UK (excl. London) with 658 cameras – Birmingham comes in at second with 422 cameras despite having well over double the population of Bristol
- Woking, Swindon and Wigan are the UK towns with the most CCTV cameras – with 691 cameras, Woking has more cameras than the most watched city, Bristol
- Lambeth, Kensington and Chelsea are the least watched London Boroughs – Lambeth has just 42 cameras despite having a whopping population of 327,900 – that’s 50,000 more people than in Hackney which was 2,246 CCTV cameras
- Manchester is the 12th most watched city despite having one of the highest crime rates – with 74 offences per 1,000 people, Manchester is the 12th most watched city in the UK. There are more CCTV cameras in Southampton, Plymouth and Exeter, all of which have significantly lower crime rates
- There are more CCTV cameras in Oxford Circus than the whole of Manchester – the tube stations has 309 cameras whereas Manchester has just 263
- Hackney has 94 people per one camera, whereas Birmingham has a shocking 2,665 people per camera – That’s 28x more people each CCTV camera in Birmingham has to watch out for!
- Woking is the most watched UK hotspot (excl. London) with 691 cameras – this town has more CCTV cameras than the likes of Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield