Smart city technology markets continue to evolve

Issue 3 2021 News & Events

Berg Insight, an IoT market research provider, released the latest edition of its comprehensive smart city technology report comprising in-depth studies of five key technology areas – smart street lighting, smart parking, smart waste collection, urban air quality monitoring and smart city surveillance.

In 2020, the global installed base of individually controlled smart street lights amounted to 13 million units (excluding China). The corresponding figures for the smart parking and smart waste sensor technology markets were 957 000 and 657 000 units respectively.

Smart parking sensors refers to in-ground or surface-mounted parking occupancy detection sensors, while smart waste sensor technology consists of fill-level sensor devices that may either be pre-integrated into bins and containers, for example, as a smart bin offering, or retrofitted on existing collection points.

The smart street lighting market has now gained significant traction and its installed base will grow at a robust CAGR of 23,4% to reach 37,4 million units in 2025. The number of installed smart parking sensors is expected to see a slightly slower growth of 21,6% (CAGR) while the smart waste sensor technology market will be the fastest growing of the three with a CAGR of 29,8%.

A more nascent smart city technology area is the field of non-regulatory urban air quality monitoring, which comprises increasingly small and low-cost air quality monitoring devices that can serve as valuable complements to traditional regulatory monitoring stations. In 2020, the number of such non-regulatory air quality monitoring devices installed in outdoor urban environments amounted to 73 000 units globally and will surpass 300 000 units in 2025. The largest of the five covered smart city application areas was, meanwhile, the smart city surveillance market, which reached a global market value of €9,9 billion in 2020. The market, which includes both fixed and mobile video and audio surveillance solutions, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19,7% throughout the forecast period.

“Looking just at the sheer volume of various types of smart city device shipments, China has in the past few years outrun most other countries in the world and now plays in a league of its own,” said Levi Ostling, smart city analyst, Berg Insight. Outside China, Europe has emerged as the leading smart city technology adopter and North America constitutes the second largest market. An exception is, however, the North American market for smart city surveillance, which was about 27% larger than the European in 2020.

“While publicly funded deployments of smart city technologies in many cases were delayed due to the pandemic, they were more importantly not cancelled thanks to their growing status as key infrastructure projects” continued Ostling when asked about the COVID-19 impact on the overall market. The pandemic has in many ways highlighted the benefits of remotely managed infrastructure and the need for smart city technologies, which should help the smart city market to recuperate strongly after a short period of slightly reduced growth.

Download report brochure: Smart Cities: Connected Public Spaces




Share this article:
Share via emailShare via LinkedInPrint this page



Further reading:

The line between locking residents out and restricting their access
News & Events Security Services & Risk Management Residential Estate (Industry)
A June 2026 High Court judgment has clarified one of the most contested issues in modern estate governance: when an HOA's digital access restrictions amount to unlawful self-help or spoliation, and when they do not.

Read more...
Compressing cyberattack timelines and targeting ungoverned AI identities
Information Security News & Events
Sophos AI Security 2026 report finds attackers are moving beyond experimentation and operationalising AI for attacks using identity as the primary initial access vector, rather than inventing new attack types.

Read more...
SAFPS urges taxpayers to remain alert to fraud
Security Services & Risk Management News & Events
The SAFPS warns taxpayers about evolving SARS scams this tax season, highlighting common fraud tactics, practical prevention tips, and trusted reporting channels to stay protected.

Read more...
Dallmeier extends software maintenance up to 10 years
Dallmeier Electronic Southern Africa Surveillance News & Events
Dallmeier is expanding its software maintenance offering and now provides an additional maintenance package for cameras and recorders, enabling customers to keep their video security systems up to date for up to 10 years.

Read more...
Sophos launches AI-native cybersecurity defence system
News & Events Information Security Security Services & Risk Management
Built for a threat landscape reshaped by AI, Sophos Fusion unites security operations, endpoint, network security, identity, email, and cloud into one defence system that prevents, detects, investigates, and responds at AI speed.

Read more...
ONVIF releases Profile V draft for cloud video without vendor lock-in
News & Events Surveillance
The cloud profile will give system integrators, consultants and end users a standards-based way to build and maintain cloud video systems using ONVIF-conformant products from different manufacturers.

Read more...
Video surveillance market faces faster growth, and 2026 price shock
Surveillance News & Events
Novaira Insights has released its 2026 edition of The World Market for Video Surveillance Hardware and Software, highlighting a stronger global growth profile in 2025, tentative improvements in China’s market outlook, and unprecedented price increases in 2026.

Read more...
Stop supplier fraud at the moment of payment
News & Events Security Services & Risk Management
Cape Town-built platform bridges the gap between onboarding and transaction by securing identity inside the live channels where companies exchange invoices and banking details.

Read more...
Enter the Global Tech Innovator 2026 Competition
News & Events
KPMG One Africa calls on Africa’s most innovative tech entrepreneurs from the 13 One Africa member firm countries across southern Africa, East Africa, and West Africa to submit their applications before Sunday, 2 August 2026.

Read more...
From the editor's desk: The high price of cheap
Technews Publishing News & Events
Bringing fire and safety, along with intrusion and perimeter protection, into the same publication is an interesting exercise. At their core, all these systems exist for one reason: to warn people ...

Read more...










While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, the publisher and its agents cannot be held responsible for any errors contained, or any loss incurred as a result. Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. The editor reserves the right to alter or cut copy. Articles submitted are deemed to have been cleared for publication. Advertisements and company contact details are published as provided by the advertiser. Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or veracity of supplied material.




© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd. | All Rights Reserved.