Global guard service revenues are projected to increase 6 percent per year to $145.2 billion in 2022, according to Global Security Services, a new study from the Freedonia Group, a Cleveland-based industry research firm. The study also states that growth will be driven primarily by gains in developing countries, with highly populous industrializing nations such as China and India contributing a particularly large share. 

The study explains that factors supporting these gains include increased urbanization and income inequality, which will tighten concerns about crime as well as boost the size of the population able to afford guard services; improvements in licensing and professionalization, which will boost public trust and enable price increases; greater outsourcing of non-core business activities such as guarding; and an increased penetration of technologically advanced security systems, which will demand more highly skilled guards.

This segment tends to be mature in developed nations, according to the study, and gains in North America and Western Europe will be modest. High labor costs and intensive penetration of electronic security services will drive strong investment in labor-saving equipment that can reduce the number of guards needed for a given application. 

The study also states that global revenues for all security service types are forecast to rise 5.8 percent per year to $269 billion in 2022.