Global Security Services

Report Overview

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How is AI technology helping the security industry?

• By accelerating the importance of surveillance

This Freedonia industry study analyzes the $259 billion global security services industry. It presents historical revenue data (2013, 2018, and 2023) and forecasts (2028 and 2033) by service type (guard, alarm monitoring, cash-in-transit and related services, security systems integration, other security services) and market (commercial and industrial, government and institutional, residential), and region (North America, Central and South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia/Pacific, Africa/Mideast. Historical market volatility is also addressed. In addition, annual historical and forecast data are provided from 2020 to 2027. Data are provided in US dollar terms. The study also evaluates company market share and competitive analysis on industry competitors including ADT, Allied Universal, Brink’s, Prosegur, and Securitas AB.

Global security service revenues are projected to increase 3.8% per year to $311 billion in 2028. Growth will be fueled by economic advances and expansion of the urban population worldwide, with the strongest growth occurring in lower- and middle-income industrializing countries. In higher-income countries, revenue growth will be supported by the increasing demand for value-added services requiring specialized skills.

See the article in BusinessMatters, Paris Olympics: A Turning Point for AI in Public Safety

Technology-Driven Segments to Post Fastest Growth

The growing use of electronic security systems to supplement manned security represents a key driver of revenue gains going forward. In addition to greater use of video surveillance and other electronic security systems, guards are increasingly interfacing with analytically driven systems to optimize their coverage and response times. Modern commercial buildings commonly integrate electronic security systems with building automation systems, adding high levels of complexity. Due to this, systems integration services are expected to post the fastest gains, with alarm monitoring services also achieving strong growth amid greater use of video monitoring.

AI Shaping the Future of Security

The rapidly advancing capabilities of AI technology have come to the forefront of the security industry in 2023 and 2024. This technology represents a massive opportunity for the industry, both as a tool for security service operators and as a source of new security threats.

Security service operators were already emphasizing surveillance as a tool to generate intelligence, and AI technology is accelerating the importance of this function. Security service providers offering visual surveillance services – as a supplement to guarding, as a form of remote monitoring, or as a component of a broader building automation system – are increasingly advertising the use of AI technology to transform the information generated by visual surveillance into actionable intelligence. In addition to directly boosting the effectiveness of security – such as by speeding threat detection to accelerate response times – these tools can be marketed as offering potential to enhance the effectiveness of a wide variety of commercial operations.

In addition, AI technology is recognized as a source of emerging security threats. For example, tools like deepfakes represent new weapons that hostile actors can employ in causing security breaches.

Security Providers Becoming Security Partners

With the ongoing growth in the complexity of security systems, leading firms are increasingly marketing themselves not simply as providers of site security, but as partners proactively guiding their clients through an ever-evolving landscape of security threats. Security service providers are expected to design and implement security protocols, integrate electronic security systems with building automation systems, provide value-added intelligence, and educate clients on emerging security threats. As a result, security consulting represents both an important growth area and a key offering driving clients to invest in ongoing guarding and monitoring services.

Historical Market Trends

The demand for security services varies over time, and often extensively, across markets and is influenced by factors like the:

• real and perceived exposure to potential loss

• level of expected losses

• nature of activities

• use of alternative security products and services

• size of the organization and its available resources

Historically, the security industry has been perceived as resistant to recessions and thus relatively stable. Recessions are typically associated with increased risk of crime, and – just as important – perceptions of greater crime risk, even when not actually reflected in official crime data. As a result, those who can afford it will often step up security spending during times of economic instability.

However, security service spending is still impacted by broader economic and demographic trends, including:

• capacity for discretionary spending among both consumers and commercial entities

• building construction activity, which impacts the stock of buildings that may require security

• changes in urbanization and population density

Revenue by Market

Market Scope & Forecasts

All segments of the global economy employ security services to some extent. For purposes of this report, security service revenue is divided into three major markets – commercial and industrial, government and institutional, and residential:

• The commercial and industrial market includes most for-profit enterprises, including banks and other financial service providers, as well as companies in the agricultural, construction, manufacturing, and mining sectors.

• The government and institutional market includes healthcare establishments, libraries, government buildings, transportation facilities, public and private museums, and schools.

• The residential market encompasses single- and multi-unit housing and private individuals.

Global security service revenues are forecast to rise 3.8% per year to $311 billion in 2028:

• The commercial and industrial market is forecast to account for 68% of global security service revenue growth, reflecting the massive and diverse demand base in this market. Gains will be supported by the increasing number of nonresidential buildings that feature modern security technology. Commercial users will increasingly invest in sophisticated security systems requiring the service of specialists for planning and implementation.

• Growth in government and institutional security service spending will be fueled by increased outsourcing of public security duties and continued concern about crime and terrorism worldwide.

• The residential market will be the fastest growing segment in most world regions. Growth will be driven by the expansion of middle-class populations in industrializing markets worldwide, which will fuel greater adoption of alarm monitoring services. The increasing availability of self-monitored electronic security systems will have a mixed impact on the market, as these compete with professional monitoring services, but can also serve as a gateway to the later purchase of professional security services.

Public Safety Environment

The level of demand for private contracted security services in each country is influenced by the size, composition, and effectiveness of various elements of its public safety forces, including:

• the criminal justice system (e.g., the police, courts, legal community, and correctional facilities)

• all other associated safety services (e.g., fire departments and military)

The relationship between criminal justice systems and private security industries and markets varies widely. However, most nations feature private security companies supplementing publicly provided police and fire services in response to customer demand but not participating in, supplanting, or interfering with official operations.

The local public safety environment can affect demand for private security services in a number of ways:

• De facto competition – A local police force or military with a record of effectiveness can reduce the perceived risk of criminal victimization, making residents and business owners less likely to invest in supplemental private security measures.

• Official direct competition – In some countries, nonprofit, quasi-police forces provide fee-for-service protection, either on a universal basis or in a specified context (e.g., for a country’s airports, diplomatic facilities, or state-run industries).

• Unofficial direct competition – In other nations, police departments themselves compete with guard companies, offering broad-based, fee-for-service protection, often as individual in their off-duty hours.

Legal & Regulatory Environment

Given the nature of its business, the global security industry is impacted, directly and indirectly, by a host of legal and regulatory considerations, which can be both restrictive and stimulative in terms of market impact. Such considerations affect not only market size and growth potential, but also the structure and composition of local security industries.

Moreover, regulations and standards vary significantly, not only between different countries but also often within the same country. In the US, for example, training and other requirements for security guards differ widely on a state-by-state basis.

Legal statutes can enhance as well as restrict security services providers’ scope of activities. In certain countries and localities, such as Singapore, select groups of private security guards are given the legal authority to act as quasi-police officers within their limited areas of responsibility.

Major areas commonly impacted by regulation include:

• licensing and training of security employees

• use of force and/or arms by security guards

• penalties and consequences for false alarms

• access to personal information for private investigators and pre-employment screeners