🏙️ Supertall Skyscrapers

Two ways of measuring the vertical world, kept honestly apart: the CTBUH-style ranking of every supertall building, and the full register of every standing structure past 350 metres, masts, chimneys and platforms included. Then the density boards: which metros are actually building their skylines.

wikipedia lists retrieved 2026-08-10 · 98 buildings · 639 structures · skydb counts 2026-11-01 · CC BY-SA 4.0
98
Tallest buildings
639
Structures 350m+
205
Metros with one
10,075
150m+ towers (SKYDB)

The tallest buildings on Earth

Every building at 350 metres or more of architectural height, the CTBUH measure.

How this is measured
Spires count, antennas do not. This is the board to quote when someone says tallest building.
1
Burj Khalifa
Dubai-Sharjah · United Arab Emirates
828.0 m
2
Merdeka Maybank Tower
Kuala Lumpur · Malaysia
678.9 m
3
Shanghai Tower
Shanghai · China
632.0 m
4
Mecca Royal Clock Tower
Mecca · Saudi Arabia
601.0 m
5
Ping An Finance Centre
Guangzhou · China
599.1 m
6
Lotte World Tower
Guangzhou · South Korea
554.5 m
7
One World Trade Center
New York · United States
541.3 m
8
Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre
Guangzhou · China
530.0 m
9
Tianjin CTF Finance Centre
Tianjin · China
530.0 m
10
CITIC Tower
Beijing · China
527.7 m
11
Taipei 101
Taipei · Taiwan
508.0 m
12
Shanghai World Financial Center
Shanghai · China
492.0 m

Every standing structure over 350 metres

Pinnacle height, tip of the antenna included, not the tallest-buildings ranking above.

How this is measured
Willis Tower reads 527.0 m here and 442.1 m on the buildings board, and the 85-metre difference is entirely its twin antennas. Guyed television masts dominate the list.
1
Burj Khalifa
Skyscraper · Dubai-Sharjah · United Arab Emirates
829.8 m
2
Merdeka Maybank Tower
Skyscraper · Kuala Lumpur · Malaysia
680.5 m
3
Petronius Platformmostly under water
Offshore platform · Petronius field , Gulf of Mexico · United States Exclusive Economic Zone
640.0 m
4
Tokyo Skytree
Lattice tower · Tokyo · Japan
634.0 m
5
Shanghai Tower
Skyscraper · Shanghai · China
632.0 m
6
KRDK-TV mast
Guyed mast · Galesburg, North Dakota · United States
627.8 m
7
KXTV/KOVR tower
Guyed mast · Sacramento · United States
624.5 m
8
AFLAC Tower
Guyed mast · Rowley, Iowa · United States
609.6 m
9
Des Moines Hearst-Argyle Television Tower Alleman
Guyed mast · Des Moines · United States
609.6 m
10
Diversified Communications Tower
Guyed mast · Floyd Dale , South Carolina · United States
609.6 m
11
Hearst-Argyle Tower
Guyed mast · Sacramento · United States
609.6 m
12
KCAU TV Tower
Guyed mast · Sioux City · United States
609.6 m

Skyline density by metro

How many towers each metro has actually built, from SKYDB's structure census.

How this is measured
Counts at 150, 200 and 300 metres of architectural height, with the era the skyline was built. Aggregates only, per SKYDB's licence.
1
390 at 200m+ · 42 at 300m+
1,211
150m+
2
88 at 200m+ · 6 at 300m+
553
150m+
3
55 at 200m+ · 4 at 300m+
442
150m+
4
97 at 200m+ · 8 at 300m+
406
150m+
5
112 at 200m+ · 18 at 300m+
358
150m+
6
134 at 200m+ · 16 at 300m+
349
150m+
7
146 at 200m+ · 34 at 300m+
320
150m+
8
88 at 200m+ · 8 at 300m+
233
150m+
9
46 at 200m+ · 1 at 300m+
233
150m+
10
72 at 200m+ · 6 at 300m+
217
150m+
11
55 at 200m+ · 0 at 300m+
185
150m+
12
43 at 200m+ · 3 at 300m+
183
150m+

Where these numbers come from

The named boards come from Wikipedia: List of tallest buildings (architectural height) and List of tallest structures (pinnacle height, 350 m threshold), retrieved 2026-08-10 and used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Structures no longer standing are excluded. The two boards use different height measures and are never compared row to row; neither is the CTBUH ranking itself, though the buildings board follows its architectural measure.

Each structure is assigned to a metro by point-in-polygon over our metro boundaries where the article carries coordinates, with an unambiguous city-plus-country name match as the fallback. Structures outside every metro stay unassigned rather than being guessed.

Skyline density counts come from SKYDB’s census of completed structures at architectural height. Its licence permits derived aggregates only, so that board shows counts and era statistics and never a name, height or coordinate. Skyline eras also appear on each metro’s own page in the rankings.