US Security Industry Statistics 2009

The following update contains statistics on a variety of security industry wide and video surveillance specific statistics conducted in a Q1 2010 survey by SSI Magazine. We recommend reading the full SSI US Security Statistics report. [link no longer available]

Compare to SSI's 2009 report.

The report included a number of general security statistics:

• Slightly over half of integrators reported decreased revenue with almost a third citing more than a 5% decrease
• 2010 revenue projected to be 12% lower than 2009 revenue for average security integrator (2009 - $12.54 M average, 2010 projected - $11.03 M average)
• Almost half of integrators laid off full time employees
• Almost half of integrators report customer defaults as a hardship from the economic crisis

The report included a number of video surveillance specific statistics:

• Video was by far the most popular source of revenue for integrators (access control was second)
• Market segments for video surveillance severely fragmented (largest was office buildings at 16%, narrowly higher than 3 other segments)
• Amount charged per video surveillance installation increased 19.8% from $19,930 to $23,770).
• Driving increase in amount charge was increase in the total number of cameras installed per job - an average of 20, increased from 17 last year. [Note: could be correct but might be a statistical error/anomaly from year to year as that would be a significant jump]
• Average reported growth for IP cameras was 47% over 2009 
• 49% of new sales are IP based, up from 39% last year [Note: this seems too high and may depend on one's interpretation of IP based - i.e., IP cameras vs DVRs with IP connections, etc.]
• 11% of new sales involve analytics with a total sales gain of 6% year over year [Note: the 11% figure seems too high and may be based on a broad definition of analytics, including motion detection, etc.]
• 30% of IP camera sales are megapixel