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The 20 Tallest Buildings on Earth and the Race to 1,000 Meters

Burj Khalifa in Dubai has been the tallest building in the world since 2010 at 828 meters (2,717 feet), 149.1 m taller than second placed Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur. This page ranks the 20 tallest completed buildings by the official height to architectural top, compares the tallest building in each country, counts the supertalls and megatalls completed each year, traces the record from the Empire State Building to Burj Khalifa, and sets out the official status of Jeddah Tower, the 1 km tower that had reached its 116th floor by September 2026.

BS
Business Stats Research Desk
Data & Research Team
Methodology
Data: Council on Vertical Urbanism (CVU, formerly CTBUH), The Skyscraper Center database, checked November 2026; CVU Year in Review and Trends and Forecasts reports 2018 to 2026; Kingdom Holding Company and Jeddah Economic Company statements.
Note: Completed buildings only, ranked by height to architectural top (spires count, antennas do not). Supertall means 300 m or more, megatall 600 m or more. Counts and differences are BusinessStats calculations.
828 mBurj Khalifa, Tallest Since 2010
678.9 mMerdeka 118, Second
4Megatalls of 600 m+
258Supertalls of 300 m+
141200 m+ Completions, 2025
1,000 mJeddah Tower, Planned
828 mBurj Khalifa
678.9 mMerdeka 118
632 mShanghai Tower
258Supertalls
Key Takeaways
  • Burj Khalifa (828 m, 163 floors, 2010) leads Merdeka 118 (678.9 m, 2023), Shanghai Tower (632 m), the Makkah Royal Clock Tower (601 m) and the Ping An Finance Center (599.1 m).
  • Nine of the 21 buildings in the global top 20 are in China, four in Malaysia and two in the United States; 14 were completed in the 2010s.
  • Only four megatalls of 600 m or more exist. The CVU counts 258 completed supertalls, with a record 26 completed in 2019.
  • Completions of 200 m buildings peaked at 184 in 2023 and reached 141 in 2025; the tallest of 2025 was the JPMorganChase Tower in New York at 423.1 m.
  • Jeddah Tower, planned at about 1,000 m, had reached its 116th of 157 floors by September 2026, with construction completion targeted for late 2028.
Quick answer

The tallest building in the world is Burj Khalifa in Dubai at 828 meters (2,717 feet) with 163 floors, completed in 2010. It is followed by Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur (678.9 m, 2023), Shanghai Tower (632 m, 2015), the Makkah Royal Clock Tower in Mecca (601 m, 2012) and the Ping An Finance Center in Shenzhen (599.1 m, 2017). These rankings use the official height to architectural top kept by the Council on Vertical Urbanism, the body known until 2025 as the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). The next record holder is already rising: Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, planned at about 1,000 m, had reached its 116th floor by September 2026 and targets completion in late 2028.

The 20 tallest completed buildings in the world

The table and chart below list every completed building that ranks in the global top 20 by height to architectural top, the measure used for the official world records. Because the two CTF Finance Centres share eighth place at exactly 530 m and the two Petronas Towers share twentieth place at 451.9 m, the top 20 contains 21 buildings. All heights, floor counts and completion years come from the Skyscraper Center database; the conversion to feet follows the database.

The gap at the top is wider than anywhere else in the list. Burj Khalifa is 149.1 m taller than second placed Merdeka 118. Below Merdeka 118 the field tightens quickly: only 1.9 m separate the third megatall, the Makkah Royal Clock Tower, from the Ping An Finance Center, which missed the 600 m megatall threshold by 0.9 m. The average height of the 21 buildings in the top 20 is 532.7 m, a BusinessStats calculation from the database heights.

The 20 Tallest Completed Buildings in the World (height to architectural top, meters)
Completed buildings only; spires count, antennas and flagpoles do not. Ties at 8th and 20th place give 21 entries.
Switch to the table for exact figures.

One building in a class of its own: Burj Khalifa is 22 percent taller than Merdeka 118 and 83 percent taller than the Petronas Towers, the title holders of 1998.

The 20 tallest completed buildings in the world, November 2026
RankBuildingCityCountryHeight (m)Height (ft)FloorsCompleted
1Burj KhalifaDubaiUnited Arab Emirates8282,7171632010
2Merdeka 118Kuala LumpurMalaysia678.92,2271182023
3Shanghai TowerShanghaiChina6322,0731282015
4Makkah Royal Clock TowerMeccaSaudi Arabia6011,9721202012
5Ping An Finance CenterShenzhenChina599.11,9651152017
6Lotte World TowerSeoulSouth Korea554.51,8191232017
7One World Trade CenterNew York CityUnited States541.31,776942014
=8Guangzhou CTF Finance CentreGuangzhouChina5301,7391112016
=8Tianjin CTF Finance CentreTianjinChina5301,739972019
10CITIC Tower (China Zun)BeijingChina527.71,7311092018
11TAIPEI 101TaipeiTaiwan5081,6671012004
12Shanghai World Financial CenterShanghaiChina4921,6141012008
13International Commerce CentreHong KongChina4841,5881082010
14Wuhan Greenland CenterWuhanChina475.61,5601012023
15Central Park TowerNew York CityUnited States472.41,550982020
16Lakhta CenterSt. PetersburgRussia4621,516872019
17Vincom Landmark 81Ho Chi Minh CityVietnam461.21,513812018
18The Exchange 106Kuala LumpurMalaysia453.61,488952019
19Changsha IFS Tower T1ChangshaChina452.11,483942018
=20Petronas Twin Tower 1Kuala LumpurMalaysia451.91,483881998
=20Petronas Twin Tower 2Kuala LumpurMalaysia451.91,483881998

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Source: CVU (formerly CTBUH), The Skyscraper Center. Floors are floors above ground. Rank shows ties with an equals sign. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China and is listed under China by the database.

Asia dominates the list. Sixteen of the 21 buildings stand in East and Southeast Asia, two in the Middle East, two in North America and one, the Lakhta Center, in Europe. No building in Africa, Latin America or Oceania makes the top 20. China alone has nine, including the International Commerce Centre in Hong Kong, spread across eight cities; the scale of that urban base is covered in our page on the total population of China. Only four of the 21 were completed before 2010, and the newest entries, Merdeka 118 and the Wuhan Greenland Center, both opened in 2023.

Top 20 Tallest Buildings by Country (number of buildings)
Count of the 21 buildings in the global top 20 by country, November 2026.
Switch to the table for exact figures.

China and Malaysia lead: nine of the 21 buildings are in China and four in Malaysia, three of them in Kuala Lumpur alone.

What sets the five tallest apart

Burj Khalifa, Dubai (828 m, 163 floors, 2010). The developer, Emaar, describes the tower as more than 828 m tall with over 160 storeys, and notes that it holds not only the world tallest building record but also the titles of tallest structure of any kind, taken from the KVLY-TV mast in the United States, and tallest free standing structure, taken from the CN Tower in Toronto. It has held first place since 2010, almost 17 years.

Merdeka 118, Kuala Lumpur (678.9 m, 118 floors, 2023). The database lists the tower, officially named Menara Merdeka 118 and shown in the 2023 completions report as Menara Merdeka Maybank, at 678.9 m to its architectural top and 680.5 m to its tip, with its highest occupied floor at 502.8 m. A large share of its height is spire, which is why the occupied height is lower than that of several shorter towers. It combines a hotel, serviced apartments and offices and was the tallest completion of 2023.

Shanghai Tower (632 m, 128 floors, 2015). The tallest building in China stands in the Lujiazui financial district next to the Shanghai World Financial Center (492 m, 12th in the world) and the Jin Mao Tower (421 m). Makkah Royal Clock Tower (601 m, 120 floors, 2012) is the tallest of the Abraj Al Bait complex beside the Grand Mosque in Mecca and remains the tallest completed building in Saudi Arabia. Ping An Finance Center (599.1 m, 115 floors, 2017) is the tallest building in Shenzhen, the city with more 200 m towers than any other.

828 m
Burj Khalifa, Dubai
Tallest since 2010, 163 floors.
678.9 m
Merdeka 118, Kuala Lumpur
Second tallest, completed 2023.
632 m
Shanghai Tower
Tallest in China, 128 floors.
601 m
Makkah Royal Clock Tower
Fourth and last megatall.
599.1 m
Ping An Finance Center
Missed megatall status by 0.9 m.
541.3 m
One World Trade Center
Tallest in the Western Hemisphere.

Why spires count and antennas do not

Every ranking on this page follows the criteria of the Council on Vertical Urbanism, the Chicago based nonprofit that adopted that name in 2025 after more than five decades as the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). Its database is the reference most widely used to settle disputes about which building is tallest. Its database distinguishes three heights, each measured from the lowest significant open air pedestrian entrance.

The three official height measures
  • Height to architectural top includes spires but excludes antennas, signage, flagpoles and other functional technical equipment. It is the measure used for the main world ranking and for this page.
  • Height to tip runs to the highest point of the building, whatever its material or function, so antennas count.
  • Height to highest occupied floor is the finished floor level of the highest floor that people can use.

Three further rules decide whether a building appears at all. A building is completed only when it is topped out structurally and architecturally, fully clad and open for business or at least partially occupiable. To count as a building rather than a tower, at least 50 percent of its height must be occupiable, which excludes telecommunications and observation towers such as the CN Tower or the Tokyo Skytree. And a building of 300 m or more is a supertall, while one of 600 m or more is a megatall.

The choice of measure changes the order. Under the spire rule, One World Trade Center counts its spire and reaches 541.3 m, more than the 442.1 m Willis Tower in Chicago even though the Willis Tower has more floors. Merdeka 118 shows the same effect at a larger scale: its occupied height of 502.8 m is lower than its 678.9 m architectural top. Critics call the unoccupied top of a building its vanity height; supporters argue that spires are part of the design. Both sides use the same database, which is why every serious list of the tallest buildings in the world starts from it.

The tallest building in each leading country

National records show how far behind most of the world is. Only seven countries and territories have a completed building taller than 500 m, while the tallest building in the United Kingdom, The Shard in London, stands at 306 m. The chart compares the tallest completed building in 15 countries on five continents, using the same architectural top measure.

Tallest Completed Building in Selected Countries (meters)
Height to architectural top of the tallest completed building in each country, November 2026.
Switch to the table for exact figures.

Seven above 500 m: the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, China, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the United States and Taiwan. Egypt now holds the tallest building in Africa, completed in 2024.

Tallest completed building by continent or region
RegionBuildingCityHeightCompleted
Middle East and worldBurj KhalifaDubai828 m (2,717 ft)2010
Southeast AsiaMerdeka 118Kuala Lumpur678.9 m (2,227 ft)2023
East AsiaShanghai TowerShanghai632 m (2,073 ft)2015
North AmericaOne World Trade CenterNew York City541.3 m (1,776 ft)2014
EuropeLakhta CenterSt. Petersburg462 m (1,516 ft)2019
AfricaIconic TowerNew Administrative Capital, Egypt393.8 m (1,292 ft)2024
OceaniaQ1 TowerGold Coast, Australia323 m (1,060 ft)2005
European UnionVarso TowerWarsaw310 m (1,017 ft)2022

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Source: CVU (formerly CTBUH), The Skyscraper Center. The Q1 Tower height is shown rounded as listed; Iconic Tower appears in the database under Cairo.

City counts tell a similar story. According to the 2026 Trends and Forecasts report, Shenzhen became the first city in the world with more than 200 completed buildings of 200 m or more, while New York City and Hong Kong each passed 100. Worldwide, the inventory of 200 m plus buildings surpassed 2,580 at the end of 2025, spread across 222 cities in 52 countries. For the population side of these skylines, see our ranking of the largest cities in the world and our data on the population of US metropolitan areas. Several of the same skylines, from New York to Hong Kong and Dubai, also feature in our rankings of the most expensive cities and the cities with the most billionaires.

How many 300 m and 600 m buildings are completed each year

The world added its first supertall in 1930, when the Chrysler Building reached 318.9 m, and for more than six decades almost every supertall was American. Today supertalls are completed at a rate of one or two a month. The CVU database counts 258 completed supertall buildings worldwide. The record year was 2019, with 26 supertall completions, followed by 2020 and 2023.

Supertall Buildings (300 m and Taller) Completed per Year, 2018 to 2025
Buildings reaching 300 m or more to architectural top in the year they were completed.
Switch to the table for exact figures.

A peak and a plateau: supertall completions hit 26 in 2019, dropped to 9 in 2021, and have moved between 10 and 20 a year since.

Megatalls are far rarer. Only four completed buildings reach 600 m, and each opened in a different year: Burj Khalifa in 2010, the Makkah Royal Clock Tower in 2012, Shanghai Tower in 2015 and Merdeka 118 in 2023. No megatall was completed in 2024 or 2025. The next two in the pipeline are Jeddah Tower and Burj Azizi in Dubai, which the CVU lists at 725 m.

The four completed megatalls (600 m and taller)
Order completedBuildingCityHeightYearMegatalls in the world after completion
1stBurj KhalifaDubai828 m20101
2ndMakkah Royal Clock TowerMecca601 m20122
3rdShanghai TowerShanghai632 m20153
4thMerdeka 118Kuala Lumpur678.9 m20234

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Source: CVU (formerly CTBUH), The Skyscraper Center. Megatall means 600 m or more to architectural top.

The broader 200 m market has been more stable than the supertall count. The CVU recorded 129 completions of 200 m or more in 2021, 167 in 2022 and a record 184 in 2023, before activity eased to 138 in 2024 and 141 in 2025. China accounted for 97 of the 138 completions in 2024. Construction volumes at this height depend on office and residential demand in a handful of large economies, which is why the pattern follows the cycle described in our construction industry statistics.

Buildings of 200 m or Taller Completed Worldwide per Year, 2021 to 2025
Annual completions of buildings 200 m and taller to architectural top.
Switch to the table for exact figures.

Record in 2023: 184 buildings of 200 m or more were completed in 2023; 2024 and 2025 settled near 140, the level the CVU also expects for 2026.

The tallest buildings completed in 2025

None of the buildings completed in 2025 entered the global top 20, which now starts at 451.9 m. The tallest completion of the year was the JPMorganChase Tower at 270 Park Avenue in New York City, at 423.1 m (1,388 ft), followed by the Zijin Financial Building in Nanjing (416.6 m) and Ningbo Center Tower 1 (409 m). Twelve of the 14 supertalls completed in 2025 were in China. The year before, Iconic Tower in Egypt (393.8 m) was the tallest completion, and it is now the tallest building in Africa.

Tallest Buildings Completed in 2025 (meters)
The ten tallest completions of 2025 by height to architectural top.
Switch to the table for exact figures.

New York leads 2025: apart from the JPMorganChase Tower and SO/ Sofitel Residences in Kuala Lumpur, all ten of the tallest completions of 2025 are in China.

Tallest building completed in each recent year
YearTallest completionCityHeight200 m+ completions that year
2021111 West 57th StreetNew York City435 m129
2022CITYMARK CENTREShenzhen388.3 m167
2023Merdeka 118Kuala Lumpur678.9 m184
2024Iconic TowerNew Administrative Capital, Egypt393.8 m138
2025JPMorganChase TowerNew York City423.1 m141

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Source: CVU (formerly CTBUH), Year in Review 2021, 2022 and 2023 and Trends and Forecasts 2025 and 2026.

Most of the top 20 were completed in the 2010s

The top 20 is young. Fourteen of its 21 buildings were completed between 2010 and 2019, the decade in which the number of 200 m buildings more than doubled. The CVU noted in its 2018 review that the world had 1,478 buildings of 200 m or more at the end of 2018, against 614 in 2010. Only the Petronas Towers (1998), TAIPEI 101 (2004) and the Shanghai World Financial Center (2008) survive from earlier decades, and three buildings have joined since 2020.

Top 20 Tallest Buildings by Decade of Completion
Number of the 21 buildings in the global top 20 completed in each decade.
Switch to the table for exact figures.

The 2010s boom: two thirds of the current top 20 were completed in a single decade, seven of the 14 of them in China.

From the Empire State Building to Burj Khalifa

The title of tallest building in the world stayed in the United States for most of the 20th century. The Chrysler Building took it in 1930 with its spire at 318.9 m, only to be passed within a year by the Empire State Building at 381 m and 102 floors. The Empire State Building then held the record for about four decades, until the twin towers of the original World Trade Center, 417 m and 415 m tall with 110 floors each, overtook it in the early 1970s.

Chicago took the title in 1974 with the Sears Tower, now the Willis Tower, at 442.1 m. It held for 24 years, until the 451.9 m Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur were completed in 1998. The Skyscraper Museum in New York notes that this was the first time the title left the United States. TAIPEI 101 raised the record to 508 m in 2004, and Burj Khalifa then raised it by 320 m in one step in 2010, the largest jump in the history of the record. Burj Khalifa is 2.17 times as tall as the Empire State Building.

Holders of the Tallest Building Title Since 1930 (meters)
Height to architectural top of each building when it became the tallest in the world.
Switch to the table for exact figures.

Seven holders in 96 years: the record grew from 318.9 m to 381 m in 1931, then took 73 years to pass 500 m, before Burj Khalifa added 320 m at once.

Title holders, tallest building in the world
BuildingCityHeightFloorsHeld the title
Chrysler BuildingNew York City318.9 m (1,046 ft)771930 to 1931
Empire State BuildingNew York City381 m (1,250 ft)1021931 to early 1970s
World Trade Center (twin towers)New York City417 m and 415 m (1,368 and 1,362 ft)110Early 1970s to 1974
Sears Tower (Willis Tower)Chicago442.1 m (1,451 ft)1081974 to 1998
Petronas TowersKuala Lumpur451.9 m (1,483 ft)881998 to 2004
TAIPEI 101Taipei508 m (1,667 ft)1012004 to 2010
Burj KhalifaDubai828 m (2,717 ft)1632010 to today

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Source: CVU (formerly CTBUH), The Skyscraper Center; The Skyscraper Museum. The World Trade Center towers were completed between 1970 and 1973 and destroyed in 2001.

The geography of the record mirrors the geography of economic growth. The title moved from New York and Chicago to Southeast Asia in the 1990s, to East Asia in the 2000s and to the Gulf in 2010, following the shift in the largest economies in the world and the rise of cities whose GDP per capita climbed fastest. Iconic towers are also tourism assets: Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai all sell observation deck tickets, and the cities rank among the destinations in our ranking of cities by foreign tourist visits. The wider travel picture is in our global tourism statistics.

Jeddah Tower and the next generation of record breakers

Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia is the only building under construction that would beat Burj Khalifa. The CVU database lists it at 1,000 m (3,281 ft), 172 m taller than the current record. Kingdom Holding Company, whose associate Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) is developing the tower, describes it as a structure of over 1,000 m with 157 floors. Construction began in 2013 and stopped in 2018. On 2 October 2024 JEC signed a SAR 7.2 billion contract with Saudi Binladin Group to finish the tower, at a point when 63 of the 157 floors were complete, with an anticipated construction period of 42 months.

Progress since then has been fast. JEC chief executive Fabien Toscano told the Saudi Mega Projects summit in Riyadh at the end of September 2026 that the structure had reached its 116th floor, about 466 m high, and that the company is targeting completion of construction in late 2028. If that date holds, Jeddah Tower would end a reign by Burj Khalifa of almost 19 years and become the first building to reach 1 km. The CVU will only add it to the completed rankings once it is clad and at least partly occupiable.

Tallest buildings under construction or topped out, official status
BuildingCityPlanned heightStatusOfficial timing
Jeddah TowerJeddah, Saudi Arabia1,000 m (3,281 ft)Under construction; 116 of 157 floors by September 2026Construction completion targeted for late 2028 (JEC)
Burj AziziDubai, UAE725 m (2,379 ft)Under construction (CVU)Not confirmed in an official statement
International Land-Sea CenterChongqing, China458.2 m (1,503 ft), 98 floorsArchitecturally topped out (CVU)Expected 2026 (CVU)

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Sources: CVU (formerly CTBUH), The Skyscraper Center and CVU 2026 Trends and Forecasts; Kingdom Holding Company announcement of 2 October 2024; JEC statement at the Saudi Mega Projects summit, September 2026. Floor count for Jeddah Tower as published by Kingdom Holding Company.

Behind these headline projects sits a deep pipeline. The CVU 2026 Trends and Forecasts report counts nearly 400 buildings of 200 m or more under construction or topped out, including dozens of supertalls, and expects about 140 completions of 200 m or more in 2026, around 18 of them supertall. It also reports a record number of stalled or on hold projects. Once complete, the International Land-Sea Center would enter the global top 20 at about 18th place, pushing the Petronas Towers out of it.

What to watch in the next three years
  • Jeddah Tower: 116 of 157 floors by September 2026, with construction completion targeted for late 2028.
  • Burj Azizi in Dubai, listed by the CVU at 725 m, would rank second in the world today, behind Burj Khalifa and ahead of Merdeka 118.
  • International Land-Sea Center in Chongqing (458.2 m) is topped out and would be the first new entry in the top 20 since 2023.
  • About 18 supertalls are expected to be completed in 2026, according to the CVU forecast.

How this ranking was compiled

All heights, floor counts, completion years and annual totals on this page come from the Skyscraper Center database of the Council on Vertical Urbanism (CVU), the organisation known until 2025 as the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), and from its annual Year in Review and Trends and Forecasts reports. Building records were checked in November 2026. Where the database rounds a height to the meter, the rounded figure is shown. Feet are converted at 3.28084 feet per meter and match the database values.

Data notes
  • Only completed buildings are ranked. Buildings that are topped out but not yet clad or occupiable, such as the International Land-Sea Center, are listed separately.
  • Supertall counts for 2020 to 2025 are BusinessStats tallies from the CVU completions lists; the counts for 2018 and 2019 are stated by the CVU.
  • Annual 200 m completion totals are taken from the report for the year in question. The database is revised over time, so later reports can show slightly different totals for earlier years.
  • Dates for buildings under construction are official statements from the developer or its listed parent company. No unofficial forecast dates are used.
  • Hong Kong is listed under China, following the database. Taiwan is shown separately for clarity.

Other lists on the web often differ because they use height to tip, include observation towers, or count buildings that are only topped out. Building projects at this scale also move in step with wider construction activity, covered in our building and construction topic overview.

The tallest buildings in the world in eight numbers

828 m
Burj Khalifa height
2,717 ft, tallest since 2010.
4
Completed megatalls
Buildings of 600 m or more.
258
Completed supertalls
Buildings of 300 m or more, CVU database.
26
Supertalls in 2019
Record year for completions.
184
200 m+ completions in 2023
Record year; 141 in 2025.
9 of 21
Top 20 entries in China
Including Hong Kong.
2,580+
Buildings of 200 m or more
End of 2025, in 52 countries.
1,000 m
Jeddah Tower, planned
Construction completion targeted late 2028.

Questions about the tallest buildings in the world

Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It stands 828 m (2,717 ft) to its architectural top, has 163 floors and was completed in 2010. It has been the tallest building in the world since its completion.

Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at 678.9 m (2,227 ft) with 118 floors. It was completed in 2023 and replaced Shanghai Tower (632 m) in second place.

Burj Khalifa (828 m), Merdeka 118 (678.9 m), Shanghai Tower (632 m), Makkah Royal Clock Tower (601 m), Ping An Finance Center (599.1 m), Lotte World Tower (554.5 m), One World Trade Center (541.3 m), the Guangzhou and Tianjin CTF Finance Centres (530 m each) and CITIC Tower in Beijing (527.7 m).

One World Trade Center in New York City, at 541.3 m (1,776 ft) including its spire, with 94 floors. It was completed in 2014 and ranks seventh in the world.

The Lakhta Center in St. Petersburg, Russia, at 462 m (1,516 ft) with 87 floors, completed in 2019. Within the European Union the tallest is Varso Tower in Warsaw at 310 m, completed in 2022.

The CVU database counts 258 completed supertalls of 300 m or more. Only four megatalls of 600 m or more are complete: Burj Khalifa, Merdeka 118, Shanghai Tower and the Makkah Royal Clock Tower.

Jeddah Economic Company is targeting completion of construction in late 2028. The tower had reached its 116th floor, about 466 m, by September 2026. At a planned 1,000 m it would become the tallest building in the world.

The official ranking uses height to architectural top, measured from the lowest significant open air pedestrian entrance. Spires count, but antennas, signage and flagpoles do not. A building must be complete and at least 50 percent occupiable by height to be ranked.

China. Nine of the 21 buildings in the global top 20 are in China, including Hong Kong, and China accounted for 97 of the 138 buildings of 200 m or more completed worldwide in 2024. Shenzhen is the first city with more than 200 buildings of 200 m or taller.

Sources

Council on Vertical Urbanism (formerly CTBUH): Tall Building Criteria: height measures, supertall and megatall definitions, completion and occupiability rules.

Council on Vertical Urbanism: CVU 2026 Trends and Forecasts, 9 February 2026 (2025 completions, global inventory, city milestones, 2026 forecast).

Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat: CTBUH 2025 Trends and Forecasts, 4 February 2025 (2024 completions, China share, average height of the 100 tallest).

Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat: CTBUH Year in Review 2023, 31 January 2024 (record 184 completions, Merdeka 118, Wuhan Greenland Center).

Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat: CTBUH Year in Review 2022 (2021 and 2022 completions, 2019 supertall record, Varso Tower, Autograph Tower).

Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat: Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2021, completions list.

Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat: Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2020, completions list.

Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat: CTBUH Year in Review 2018 (18 supertalls, 1,478 buildings of 200 m or more at the end of 2018, 614 in 2010).

The Skyscraper Center: building records for Ping An Finance Center, CITIC Tower, The Exchange 106, Changsha IFS Tower T1, Wuhan Greenland Center, International Land-Sea Center and the Petronas Towers, checked November 2026.

The Skyscraper Center: country and city pages for Saudi Arabia, Jeddah and South Korea (Jeddah Tower planned height, Lotte World Tower height).

Kingdom Holding Company: Jeddah Economic Company has signed an agreement, 2 October 2024 (SAR 7.2 billion contract, 63 of 157 floors complete, 42 month construction period).

Jeddah Economic Company: remarks by chief executive Fabien Toscano at the Saudi Mega Projects summit, Riyadh, 28 to 30 September 2026 (116th floor, construction completion targeted late 2028).

Emaar, Burj Khalifa: Facts and figures (height, storeys, records).

The Skyscraper Museum: Supertall! history of the tallest buildings, and the Tallest Towers exhibition entry on the World Trade Center (heights, floors, title dates).

Rankings use height to architectural top for completed buildings under CVU (formerly CTBUH) criteria, checked in November 2026. Feet values follow the database. Supertall counts for 2020 to 2025, country counts, the decade breakdown, averages and height differences are BusinessStats calculations from CVU data. Planned heights and dates for buildings under construction are official statements only; no projected completion dates from third parties are used.
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