The 17 tallest buildings in the world right now, ranked

POSTED BY The Editor | Jan, 09, 2022 |

New York City’s One World Trade Center is the sixth-tallest building in the world. Phil Dolby/Flickr

We ranked the tallest completed buildings in the world right now using data from The Skyscraper Center.
At 2,716 feet, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai has reigned as the world’s tallest building since 2010.
The shortest building on the list is the Vincom Landmark 81 tower in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, at 1,513 feet.
Only one US skyscraper, One World Trade Center in New York City, made the top 17.

For nearly half a century, from 1931 through 1972, the 1,454-foot Empire State Building held the title of the tallest building in the world.

The world has come a long way since then — in the rankings of today’s tallest man-made structures, the Empire State Building doesn’t even crack the top 40.

In September 2020, an architecture firm and luxury condo building company began constructing what will be the largest residential tower in Canada — SkyTower. It’s in Toronto, and at 1,025 feet high, it’ll be the city’s second-largest building behind the CN Tower.

We ranked the 17 tallest completed buildings in the world right now using data from The Skyscraper Center, a database maintained by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

The world’s current tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, soars 2,716 into the sky, and more and more skyscrapers across Asia and the Middle East are rising each year. Eight of the top 15 tallest buildings are in China.

Only one US skyscraper made the list: One World Trade Center in New York City, which stands at 1,776 feet.

Here are the 17 tallest buildings in the world right now, ranked. Note that the list begins with a three-way tie.

Jack Sommer contributed to an earlier version of this story.