This list of tallest buildings includes
skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...
s with continuously occupiable floors and a height of at least .
Non-building structures, such as
tower
A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...
s, are not included in this list (for these, see ''
List of tallest buildings and structures
The world's tallest human-made structure is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (of the United Arab Emirates). The building gained the official title of "tallest building in the world" and the tallest self-supported structure at its opening on Januar ...
'').
History
Historically, the world's tallest man-made structure was the
Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the biggest Egyptian pyramid and the tomb of Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu. Built in the early 26th century BC during a period of around 27 years, the pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, ...
in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, which held the position for over 3800 years until the construction of
Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln Minster, or the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln and sometimes St Mary's Cathedral, in Lincoln, England, is a Grade I listed cathedral and is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Lincoln. Constructio ...
in 1311. The
Strasbourg Cathedral
Strasbourg Cathedral or the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg (french: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, or ''Cathédrale de Strasbourg'', german: Liebfrauenmünster zu Straßburg or ''Straßburger Münster''), also known as Strasbourg ...
in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, completed in 1439, was the world's tallest building until 1874.
The first skyscraper was pioneered in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordinates =
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, subdivision_name ...
with the
Home Insurance Building
The Home Insurance Building was a skyscraper that stood in Chicago from 1885 to 1931. Originally ten stories and tall, it was designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1884 and completed the next year. Two floors were added in 1891, bringing its ...
in 1885. The
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
would hold the position of the world's tallest building throughout the 20th century until 1998, when the
Petronas Towers
The Petronas Towers, also known as the Petronas Twin Towers or KLCC Twin Towers, (Malay: ''Menara Berkembar Petronas'') are 88-storey supertall skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, standing at . From 1998 to 2003, they were officially design ...
were completed. Since then, two other buildings have gained the title:
Taipei 101
Taipei 101 (; stylized as TAIPEI 101), formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a supertall skyscraper in Taipei, Taiwan. This building was officially classified as the world's tallest from its opening in 2004 until the 2009 ...
in 2004 and
Burj Khalifa
The Burj Khalifa (; ar, برج خليفة, , Khalifa Tower), known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration in 2010, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is known for being the world’s tallest building. With a total height ...
in 2010. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, and
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
have experienced booms in skyscraper construction.
Ranking criteria and alternatives
The international non-profit organization
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is an international body in the field of tall buildings and sustainable urban design. A non-profit organization based at the Monroe Building in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States ...
(CTBUH) was formed in 1969 and announces the title of "The World's Tallest Building" and sets the standards by which buildings are measured. It maintains a list of the 100 tallest completed buildings in the world.
The organization currently ranks
Burj Khalifa
The Burj Khalifa (; ar, برج خليفة, , Khalifa Tower), known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration in 2010, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is known for being the world’s tallest building. With a total height ...
in Dubai as the tallest at . However, the CTBUH only recognizes buildings that are complete, and some buildings included within the lists in this article are not considered finished by the CTBUH.
In 1996, as a response to the dispute as to whether the
Petronas Towers
The Petronas Towers, also known as the Petronas Twin Towers or KLCC Twin Towers, (Malay: ''Menara Berkembar Petronas'') are 88-storey supertall skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, standing at . From 1998 to 2003, they were officially design ...
or the
Sears Tower
The Willis Tower (originally the Sears Tower) is a 108-story, skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), ...
was taller,
the council listed and ranked buildings in four categories:
* height to structural or architectural top;
* height to floor of highest occupied floor;
* height to top of roof (removed as category in November 2009); and
* height to top of any part of the building.
All categories measure the building from the level of the lowest, significant, open-air, pedestrian entrance.
Spire
A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...
s are considered integral parts of the architectural design of buildings, changes to which would substantially change the appearance and design of the building, whereas antennas may be added or removed without such consequences. The Petronas Towers, with their spires, are thus ranked higher than the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) with its antennas, despite the Petronas Towers' lower roofs and lower highest point.
Until 1996, the world's tallest building was defined by the height to the top of the tallest architectural element, including spires but not antennae.
In 1930, this definitional argument led to a rivalry between the
Bank of Manhattan Building and the
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At , it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel fra ...
. The Bank of Manhattan Building (i.e. 40 Wall Street) employed only a short spire, was tall, and had a much higher top occupied floor (the second category in the 1996 criteria for tallest building). In contrast, the Chrysler Building employed a very large spire secretly assembled inside the building to claim the title of world's tallest building with a total height of , although it had a lower top occupied floor and a shorter height when both buildings' spires were excluded.
Upset by Chrysler's victory,
Shreve & Lamb, the consulting architects of the Bank of Manhattan Building, wrote a newspaper article claiming that their building was actually the tallest, since it contained the world's highest usable floor, at . They pointed out that the observation deck in the Bank of Manhattan Building was nearly above the top floor in the Chrysler Building, whose surpassing spire was strictly ornamental and inaccessible.
The Burj Khalifa currently tops the list by some margin, regardless of which criterion is applied.
Tallest buildings in the world
, this list includes all 90 buildings (completed and architecturally
topped out
In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlaye ...
) which reach a height of or more, as assessed by their highest architectural feature. The building is considered as architecturally topped out when it is under construction, structurally topped out, fully clad, and the highest finished architectural elements are in place.
Of these buildings, almost half are in China. Six of the last seven buildings to have held the record as '
tallest building
This list of tallest buildings includes skyscrapers with continuously occupiable floors and a height of at least . Nonbuilding structure, Non-building structures, such as towers, are not included in this list (for these, see ''List of tallest ...
' are still found in the list, with the exception being the North Tower of the original
World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
at after its destruction in the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
of 2001. If the Twin Towers were never destroyed, and
One World Trade Center
One World Trade Center (also known as One World Trade, One WTC, and formerly Freedom Tower) is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Mer ...
was never built, the WTC towers would rank 34 and 35 on the list today.
Alternative measurements
Height to pinnacle (highest point)
![Tallest Buildings in the World by pinnacle height](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Tallest_Buildings_in_the_World_by_pinnacle_height.png)
This measurement disregards distinctions between architectural and non-architectural extensions, and simply measures to the highest point, irrespective of material or function of the highest element.
This measurement is useful for
air traffic obstacle
An Air traffic obstacle is a tall structure which can endanger air traffic. Air traffic obstacles have to be marked in most cases with red and white colored markings and with aircraft warning lights at night. On larger structures blinking lights ...
determinations, and is also a wholly objective measure. However, this measurement includes extensions that are easily added, removed, and modified from a building and are independent of the overall structure.
This measurement only recently came into use, when the
Petronas Towers
The Petronas Towers, also known as the Petronas Twin Towers or KLCC Twin Towers, (Malay: ''Menara Berkembar Petronas'') are 88-storey supertall skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, standing at . From 1998 to 2003, they were officially design ...
passed the Sears Tower (now named
Willis Tower
The Willis Tower (originally the Sears Tower) is a 108-story, skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), ...
) in height. The former was considered taller because its spires were considered architectural, while the latter's antennae were not. This led to the split of definitions, with the Sears Tower claiming the lead in this and the height-to-roof (now highest occupied floor) categories, and with the Petronas claiming the lead in the architectural height category.
If the
World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
towers were still standing, the
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography.
Etymology
T ...
() and
South Towers () would fall between numbers 35 and 36 on the current list (it can be assumed the rebuilt One World Trade Center would have never been built).
Height to occupied floor
![Highest occupied floor 2022](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Highest_occupied_floor_2022.png)
This height is measured to the highest occupiable floor within the building.
Buildings under construction
This is a list of buildings taller than that are currently under construction.
On-hold buildings whose construction was interrupted after it had reached a significantly advanced state are also listed.
List by continent
The following list shows the tallest completed buildings located on each
continent
A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...
listed by greatest to least height (click on name of continent for continent-specific list):
See also
*
List of tallest towers
Several extant building fulfill the engineering definition of a tower: "a tall human structure, always taller than it is wide, for public or regular operational access by humans, but not for living in or office work, and are ''self-supporting' ...
*
History of the world's tallest buildings
The tallest building in the world, as of , is the Burj Khalifa. The title of " world's tallest building" has been borne by various buildings, such as the Lincoln Cathedral, the Empire State Building and the original World Trade Center.
Before the ...
*
Skyscraper Index
The Skyscraper Index is a concept put forward by Andrew Lawrence, a property analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, in January 1999, which showed that the world's tallest buildings have risen on the eve of economic downturns. Business cycles ...
*
Vanity height
Vanity height is defined by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) as the height difference between a skyscraper's pinnacle and the highest usable floor (usually observatory, office, restaurant, retail or hotel/residential). Becau ...
Notes
References
External links
*
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban HabitatEmporis international database and gallery of buildings
Structurae international database and gallery of structures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tallest buildings in the world
Lists of buildings and structures
Lists of construction records
*