The Tallest Buildings in the World in 2020. Top 30

Below is a list of the tallest build­ings in the world as of 2020. Sky­scrap­ers are ranked by stan­dard archi­tec­tur­al height, but oth­er heights may be giv­en for ref­er­ence. Build­ings that are under con­struc­tion but have already reached their max­i­mum or exceed­ed cer­tain heights are also includ­ed. Due to the rapid devel­op­ment of sky­scrap­ers, some items may change, so the arti­cle will be updat­ed from time to time.

1. Burj Khalifa

• Stan­dard height: 828 meters
• Total height: 829.8 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 163
• Obser­va­tion deck: 448 m and 555 m
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2010
• Usage: Apart­ments, Hotel, Office, Obser­va­tion deck, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions

The Burj Khal­i­fa is the tallest build­ing in the world by any mea­sure. The sky­scraper has held this record since its com­ple­tion in 2009. Experts esti­mate that the build­ing could hold its title for the next 4 years, until sur­passed by the Jed­dah Tow­er in Jed­dah, Sau­di Ara­bia. Anoth­er con­tender is Dubai Creek Tow­er, which is locat­ed just a few kilo­me­ters from the Burj Khal­i­fa.

The obser­va­tion deck on the Burj Khal­i­fa is one of the most vis­it­ed places in Dubai, the obser­va­to­ry called At The Top SKY is still the high­est obser­va­tion deck in the world.

2. Shanghai Tower

• Stan­dard height: 632 meters
• Para­pet height: 583 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 128
• Obser­va­tion deck: 552 m
• Usage: Office, Obser­va­tion Plat­form, Hotel, Book­store, Muse­um
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2015
• Loca­tion: Shang­hai

The Shang­hai Tow­er was com­plet­ed in ear­ly 2015, and has since become the tallest build­ing in Chi­na. A mul­ti-storey obser­va­tion deck has been opened on the 118th and 119th floors of the Shang­hai Tow­er, which, as of 2018, is the sec­ond high­est obser­va­tion deck in the world, sec­ond only to Burj Khal­i­fa SKY.

It’s safe to say that the Shang­hai Tow­er can hold the title of Chi­na’s tallest build­ing for quite some time. The tow­er will not be sur­passed until the com­ple­tion of the Suzhou Zhong­nan Cen­ter, which has been on hold for many years.

3. Abraj Al Bayt

• Stan­dard height: 601 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 120
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2012
• Loca­tion: Mec­ca
• Usage: Hotel, Res­i­dences, Retail, Reli­gious use

Abraj Al Bayt is in close prox­im­i­ty to the Grand Mosque in Mec­ca, the holi­est site in Islam. The build­ing reach­es a height of 601 meters. It is one of only three build­ings in the world that is cat­e­go­rized as a mega-tall sky­scraper.

4. Pingan skyscraper

• Stan­dard height: 599 meters
• Roof height: 589 meters
• Obser­va­tion deck: 541 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 115
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2016
• Loca­tion: Shen­zhen
• Usage: office, retail, obser­va­tion deck

The Ping’an Inter­na­tion­al Finan­cial Cen­ter was designed to be 660 meters high, includ­ing the spire. Thus, it became the tallest build­ing in the coun­try, but sud­den­ly there was a prob­lem with flights, as a result of which the height was lim­it­ed to 600 meters by dis­man­tling the spire. The same thing hap­pened ear­li­er with the Can­ton tow­er, which has the same height. The build­ing has an obser­va­tion deck on the 116th floor.

5. Goldin Finance 117

• Stan­dard height: 597 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 117
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2019
• Usage: office, hotel, res­i­dences, obser­va­tion deck, retail
• Loca­tion: Tian­jin

Goldin Finance 117 is still under con­struc­tion but was ful­ly com­plet­ed in May 2019 after the com­ple­tion of the dia­mond struc­ture on top of the build­ing. Although the tow­er is the 5th tallest build­ing in the world, it actu­al­ly has a taller con­crete core than any oth­er build­ing in the world and is the world’s tallest build­ing with a flat roof.

6. Lotte World Tower

• Stan­dard height: 555 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 123
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2016
• Loca­tion: Seoul
• Usage: office, hotel, view­ing plat­form, res­i­dence, retail

Lotte World Tow­er is the tallest build­ing in South Korea. Lotte Tow­er opened on April 3, 2017 with a total area of ​​123 floors. A mul­ti-sto­ry obser­va­tion plat­form occu­pies the top 7 floors of the tow­er, although in most cas­es, obser­va­tion decks on sky­scrap­ers occu­py only one or two floors.

7. World Trade Center 1

• Stan­dard height: 541 meters
• Roof height: 417 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 104
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2014
• Usage: Office, Obser­va­tion Plat­form, Com­mu­ni­ca­tion
• Loca­tion: New York

World Trade Cen­ter 1 is the tallest build­ing in New York and the West­ern Hemi­sphere. Its roof height is 417 meters, which is com­pa­ra­ble to the North Tow­er of the orig­i­nal World Trade Cen­ter, but the spire is longer, with a total height of 541 meters.

8. Chow Tai Fook Financial Center

• Stan­dard height: 530 meters
• Roof height: 530 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 111
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2016
• Usage: office, hotel, res­i­dences
• Loca­tion: Guangzhou

This tow­er is owned and named after Chow Tai Fook Enter­pris­es and was designed by New World Devel­op­ment. This is the first mega build­ing named after Chow Tai Fook, anoth­er tow­er of the same size is cur­rent­ly under con­struc­tion in Tian­jin, also named after Chow Tai Fook.

9. Tianjin Chow Tai Fook Binhai Center

• Stan­dard height: 530 meters
• Roof height: 480 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 97
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2019
• Usage: office, hotel, res­i­dences
• Loca­tion: Tian­jin

Tian­jin Chow Tai Fook Bin­hai Cen­ter is the sec­ond super­star project named after Chow Tai Fook Enter­pris­es. The tow­er was ful­ly com­plet­ed by the end of Sep­tem­ber 2017 and opened on Sep­tem­ber 21, 2019.

10. Skyscraper China Zun

• Stan­dard height: 528 meters
• Roof height: 524 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 108
• Obser­va­tion deck: 524 meters
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2018
• Usage: office, retail, hotel, view­ing plat­form
• Loca­tion: Bei­jing

The Chi­na Zun Tow­er is also known by its offi­cial name CITIC Plaza as it is the head­quar­ters of the state cor­po­ra­tion CITIC. But the pseu­do­nym Chi­na-Zun is more wide­ly used in every­day life. Chi­na Zun is a tra­di­tion­al ship of ancient Chi­na, which inspired the archi­tects with its shape. The tow­er was built in July 2017, and a month lat­er its height reached 528 meters, becom­ing the 10th tallest build­ing in the world. The Chi­na Zun Tow­er was com­plet­ed in Octo­ber 2018 and is cur­rent­ly the tallest build­ing in the Chi­nese cap­i­tal.

The struc­tures list­ed above are among the ten tallest build­ings in the world. You may be sur­prised that many sky­scrap­ers you know are not list­ed. The rapid devel­op­ment of sky­scrap­ers around the world has led to these build­ings falling out of the top 10. Below are build­ings that are slight­ly short­er than the top 10. As some of these build­ings are still under con­struc­tion and grow­ing rapid­ly, the rat­ing may change fre­quent­ly.

Read also: Top 10 most beau­ti­ful sky­scrap­ers in the world on Life­Globe.

Taipei 101

• Stan­dard height: 509 meters
• Roof height: 448 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 101
• Obser­va­tion deck: 392 m
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2004
• Usage: Offices, Retail, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Library
• Loca­tion: Taipei

Taipei 101 was the world’s tallest build­ing by archi­tec­tur­al height from 2004 to 2009. Today, the tow­er is still the tallest build­ing built in a seis­mi­cal­ly active area. The exte­ri­or of the tow­er was inspired by the pago­das of ancient Chi­na, the main part of the tow­er con­sists of 8 stacked large seg­ments, each with 8 floors, as the num­ber 8 is a sign of pros­per­i­ty in Chi­nese cul­ture.

Taipei 101 has the third high­est out­door obser­va­tion deck in the world, and 2 indoor obser­va­tion decks direct­ly below it.

shanghai world financial center

• Stan­dard height: 492 meters
• Roof height: 492 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 101
• Obser­va­tion deck: 423 m, 439 m, 474 m
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2008
• Usage: office, hotel, obser­va­tion deck, retail, restau­rant
• Loca­tion: Shang­hai

The Shang­hai World Finan­cial Cen­ter was the tallest build­ing in the world by roof height from 2008 to 2009, how­ev­er it has nev­er actu­al­ly been taller than the Burj Khal­i­fa. He received this title only because the Burj Khal­i­fa was still under con­struc­tion at that time. It’s hard to believe that the tow­er has moved out of the top 10 tallest build­ings in the world in less than 10 years.

International Commerce Center

• Stan­dard height: 484 meters
• Roof height: 484 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 118
• Obser­va­tion deck: 393 m
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2010
• Loca­tion: Hong Kong
• Usage: office, hotel, retail

The Inter­na­tion­al Com­merce Cen­ter is the tallest build­ing in Hong Kong. Unlike most oth­er sky­scrap­ers in Hong Kong, it is locat­ed on the Kowloon Penin­su­la and not on Hong Kong Island. Due to the short­age of land on the island, most of the lat­est high-rise build­ings are out­side Hong Kong Island, includ­ing the new­ly built New World Trade Cen­ter.

Central Park Tower

• Stan­dard height: 472 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 131
• Release year: 2019
• Usage: Res­i­dences, Retail
• Loca­tion: New York

Cen­tral Park Tow­er is a res­i­den­tial sky­scraper being built next to Cen­tral Park in down­town New York. When com­plet­ed, the tow­er will be named Amer­i­ca’s tallest build­ing by roof height. In fact, the build­ing sur­passed the height of Chicago’s Willis Tow­er in June 2019, but has con­tin­ued to grow. The tow­er was struc­tural­ly com­plet­ed in Sep­tem­ber 2019 and reached its full height of 472 meters in Octo­ber.

Wuhan Greenland Center

• Stan­dard height: 476 meters
• Cur­rent alti­tude: Decem­ber 2019, about 460 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 97
• Esti­mat­ed Com­ple­tion Date: 2020
• Usage: office, hotel, res­i­dences, obser­va­tion plat­form
• Loca­tion: Wuhan

Wuhan Green­land Cen­ter is a sky­scraper along the Yangtze Riv­er in Wuhan, Chi­na. It was orig­i­nal­ly planned to rise to 636 meters and become Chi­na’s tallest build­ing, sur­pass­ing the Shang­hai Tow­er by 4 meters. In addi­tion, the tow­er will have the world’s high­est acces­si­ble floor at 610 meters above the ground and an obser­va­tion deck that will be the high­est in the world.

The tow­er is expect­ed to be com­plet­ed in 2020. Work has been sus­pend­ed since ear­ly 2018 due to city air­space restric­tions, result­ing in a reduc­tion in the planned alti­tude to 476 meters.

Lakhta Center

• Stan­dard height: 462 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 86
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2019
• Usage: office, obser­va­tion deck, sports cen­ter
• Loca­tion: St. Peters­burg

Lakhta Cen­ter in St. Peters­burg is the first super-sky­scraper in the city, and is cur­rent­ly the tallest build­ing in Rus­sia and Europe. The sky­scraper is also con­sid­ered the north­ern­most sky­scraper in the world. The Lakhta Cen­ter was devel­oped by Gazprom and is the com­pa­ny’s new head­quar­ters. The tow­er will also include an obser­va­tion deck on the top floor at a height of 357 meters.

Vincom Landmark 81

• Stan­dard height and roof height: 461.5 meters
• Over­all height: 469.5 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 81
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2018
• Usage: Res­i­den­tial Com­plex, Hotel, Obser­va­tion Deck
• Loca­tion: Ho Chi Minh City

Vin­com Land­mark 81 is cur­rent­ly the tallest build­ing in Viet­nam and South­east Asia. It is built as the cen­ter­piece of a high-per­for­mance mixed-use urban area called Vin­homes Cen­tral Park. On the upper floors of the tow­er is a mul­ti-storey obser­va­tion deck. The build­ing was ful­ly com­plet­ed in April 2018 and opened at the end of 2018.

petronas towers

• Stan­dard height: 452 meters
• Roof height: 407 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 88
• Obser­va­tion deck: 370 m, 170 m
• Year built: 1998
• Used: Office, Obser­va­tion deck, Retail
• Loca­tion: Kuala Lumpur

The Petronas Tow­ers were the world’s tallest build­ings by archi­tec­tur­al height from 1998 to 2004. The com­plex of 2 twin tow­ers has an obser­va­tion deck on the 86th floor, there is also a small­er deck in the bridge between the two tow­ers.

The Exchange 106 building

• Stan­dard height and roof height: 452 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 106
• Release year: 2018
• Uses: Office
• Loca­tion: Kuala Lumpur

The Exchange 106 is a high-rise sky­scraper under con­struc­tion in Kuala Lumpur near the Petronas Tow­ers. The build­ing sur­passed the roof of the Petronas Tow­ers in Decem­ber 2017, and will remain the tallest build­ing in the city and all of South­east Asia by roof height for at least a few more years.

IFS Tower T1, Changsha

• Stan­dard height: 452 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 88
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2017
• Loca­tion: Chang­sha
• Used: Offices

Com­plet­ed in 2017, IFS Tow­er T1 is the tallest build­ing in Chang­sha. In the future, that title will like­ly go to Sky City, a project tout­ed as the next tallest build­ing in the world.

Suzhou IFS building

• Stan­dard height: 450 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 92
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2016
• Usage: office, hotel, res­i­dences, retail
• Loca­tion: Suzhou

As the name sug­gests, the tow­er is being devel­oped by the same devel­op­er as IFS in Chang­sha. They are also devel­op­ing oth­er sky­scrap­ers with the same name in oth­er cities in Chi­na, but not as tall as these two tow­ers.

Zifeng Tower

• Stan­dard height: 450 meters
• Roof height: 381 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 89
• Usage: office, hotel, restau­rant, retail
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2010
• Loca­tion: Nan­jing

Reach­ing a height of 450 meters, the sky­scraper does not look so high at all. Unlike the 381 meter tall tow­er, the top is very thin. It has a res­i­den­tial floor direct­ly below the spire, which is used as a restau­rant.

Inter­est­ing arti­cle: The most unusu­al sky­scrap­ers in the world

Willis Tower, Chicago

• Stan­dard height: 442 meters
• Roof height: 442 meters
• Total height: 527 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 108
• Obser­va­tion deck: 412 m
• Year built: 1974
• Usage: office, retail, obser­va­tion deck
• Loca­tion: Chica­go

The sky­scraper is also known by its for­mer name Sears Tow­er. The Willis Tow­er was the tallest build­ing in the world from 1974 to 1998, hold­ing that title for 24 years. For such a long time, it is sec­ond only to the Empire State Build­ing, which was the tallest build­ing in the world for 40 years. Willis Tow­er lost that title in 1998 when the Petronas Tow­ers sur­passed it in their spiers.

The Willis Tow­er was the tallest build­ing in Amer­i­ca from its com­ple­tion in 1974 until the new World Trade Cen­ter sur­passed it in 2014. How­ev­er, the roof of the Willis Tow­er is still the high­est in Amer­i­ca (among com­plet­ed build­ings).

Tower Kingkey 100

• Stan­dard height: 442 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 100
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2011
• Loca­tion: Shen­zhen
• Usage: office, hotel, restau­rant, retail

KK 100 has been the tallest build­ing in Shen­zhen since sur­pass­ing Shun Hing Plaza in 2010. Now his record has been bro­ken by the Ping’an Inter­na­tion­al Finan­cial Cen­ter. There is a restau­rant on the top floor with great views of the city sky­line.

Guangzhou International Financial Center

• Stan­dard height: 438 meters
• Total height: 442 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 103
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2010
• Usage: office, hotel, restau­rant, retail
• Loca­tion: Guangzhou

The Guangzhou Inter­na­tion­al Finan­cial Cen­ter (IFC Guangzhou) was the tallest build­ing in Guangzhou from 2010 to 2016. Now the tow­er is in sec­ond place after the cen­ter of Chow Tai Fook. If the broad­cast tow­er is count­ed, IFC Guangzhou is the 3rd tallest in the city and the 24th tallest in the world.

Wuhan Center

• Stan­dard height: 438 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 88
• Open­ing year: 2016
• Loca­tion: Wuhan
• Usage: Office, Obser­va­tion Deck, Hotel

The Wuhan Cen­ter is cur­rent­ly the sec­ond tallest build­ing in Wuhan after the Green­land Cen­ter. The build­ing is the first tow­er built for the devel­op­ment of a new twin tow­er project in Wuhan. Both twin tow­ers will have a height of 438 meters. When com­plet­ed, they will become the sec­ond tallest twin tow­ers in the world.

111 West 57 St

• Stan­dard height: 435 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 82
• Year of com­ple­tion: 2019
• Loca­tion: New York
• Usage: Res­i­den­tial

111 West 57 St is a res­i­den­tial tow­er under con­struc­tion on 57th Street in down­town New York, a very thin build­ing with a width to height ratio of 1:23 is the thinnest sky­scraper in the world. The tow­er was offi­cial­ly com­plet­ed on Octo­ber 29, 2019.

Marina 101, Dubai

• Stan­dard height: 427 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 101
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2017
• Loca­tion: Dubai
• Usage: Res­i­dences, Hotel

Com­plet­ed in 2017, this tow­er over­took New York’s 432 Park Ave to become the world’s tallest res­i­den­tial build­ing, but in a few years, that title will pass to World One in Mum­bai.

Building 432 Park Ave

• Stan­dard height: 426 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 96
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2016
• Usage: Res­i­dences
• Loca­tion: New York

The tow­er became the world’s tallest res­i­den­tial build­ing upon com­ple­tion in ear­ly 2016, sur­pass­ing the New World Trade Cen­ter in roof height.

Trump International Hotel and Tower

• Stan­dard height: 423 meters
• Roof height: 356 meters
• Num­ber of floors: 98
• Year of con­struc­tion: 2009
• Usage: hotel, res­i­dences, retail
• Loca­tion: Chica­go

This tow­er was designed by Don­ald Trump, who is now the Pres­i­dent of Amer­i­ca. The tow­er was orig­i­nal­ly con­ceived as the tallest build­ing in the world. With a height of 457 meters, it was 5 meters taller than the Petronas Tow­ers. The height was reduced due to safe­ty con­cerns fol­low­ing the destruc­tion of the World Trade Cen­ter Twin Tow­ers.

Despite being adver­tised as a 423-meter tow­er, the roof is only 356 meters high, and unlike the New World Trade Cen­ter, its spire is extreme­ly thin to be tak­en into account when esti­mat­ing the over­all height.

Con­tin­u­ing the theme, vis­it the selec­tion of the top 10 most famous build­ings in the world.