Campus Safety
School Physical Security Spending To Top $1.1 Billion Within 4 Years
Annual school expenditures on surveillance and access control systems will reach more than $1.1 billion by 2018.
According to a recent forecast from market research firm TechNavio, the total global market will grow at a five-year compound annual rate of 14.3 percent through 2018, with 2014 expenditures expected to hit about $563 million.
Much of that growth is being driven by K-12 schools and higher education institutions in the United States, though K-12 schools are the larger of the two groups when it comes to expenditures on physical security systems. According to a TechNavio analyst: "TechNavio finds that of the total revenue generated in this market, the K-12 segment accounts for nearly 60 percent of the market while the remaining 40 percent is contributed by higher education sector."
K-12 is expected to dominate growth in the coming years.
"Based on end-user category, the investment from K-12 is expected to experience a growth," according to TechNavio. "The major reasons for this is the growing security concerns of parents and the need to maintain the school's reputation. The investment by universities and colleges are comparatively low as the level of awareness among students is high."
All of the Americas combined represent about $300 million in spending on surveillance and access control systems, with the United States alone accounting for $210 million, or 70 percent, of that total, according to TechNavio.
Video surveillance makes up the bulk of expenditures on physical security systems as of this year.
"Video surveillance constitutes to nearly 65 percent of the market in the [United States] in 2014," according to the TechNavio analyst. "There is a similar rate of adoption of access control systems, with the roll out of ID cards. Currently, access control systems account for 35 percent of the revenue generation in the [United States]. However, more school authorities are emphasizing ... implementing video surveillance systems on a faster node compared to access control systems."
Further, according to the analyst: "Based on product category, video surveillance is expected to experience higher growth than access control systems. One of the major reasons for this is the user-friendliness and the high level of security offered. However, both video surveillance and access control systems are expected to experience a decline in ... year-on-year growth rate due to the decrease in costs of these systems because of the increase in competition among vendors."
An abstract of the report is available on TechNavio's site.
About the Author
David Nagel is editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Technology Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal and STEAM Universe. A 25-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art and business publications.
He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at or follow him on Twitter at @THEJournalDave (K-12) or @CampusTechDave (higher education).