# Skyscraper Database



## LivinAWestLife (Aug 24, 2019)

After about a month of working on this, I've decided to share my skyscraper database on this forum:








Ultimate Skyscraper Database


Data City,Country,Number of Tallest Buildings,10,Population (as of 2020),Metro Area,Number of Top 20 Built during last decade,Notes Tallest Building,Height (m),Year,300m+,250m+,200m+,150m+,100m+,50m+,U/C (150),Proper,Urban,(if applicable) Shenzhen,China,Ping An International Finance Center,599,2017




docs.google.com





This database lists over 1000 cities according to their tallest buildings, and the distribution of heights of those buildings (50m, 100m, 150m, 200m, 250m and 300m) as an objective measure of how a skyline could look like/could be ranked. There are certainly cities that are missing, so if any are found I will be sure to add them, but I tried to be as comprehensive as I could. I only included cities with at least 1 50m+ tower.

A couple notes:

All data on this list is from Emporis, which may differ in height from SSC, since there is much more info on Emporis's website.
The number of skyscrapers by height only lists completed buildings as shown on Emporis, while the U/C figure is from SSC (though quite incomplete). "U/C" buildings that are shown to be completed in 2019 are counted as completed.
The tallest building by each city includes under-construction buildings with their estimated date of completion. The date "202X" means that the year of completion is unknown, but it will be that city's tallest building.
American cities except major ones are noted with their state.
A HUGE ton of data is missing from Chinese cities, especially those with an urban population of less than 2 million (Jishou, Zhumadian, etc.) However there is no good source for buildings in those cities. I'm definitely sure they have more than 1 50m+ building, probably tens or hundreds, but there is no way to calculate that.
I listed a city population section on the right in case I wanted to do a "per-capita" analysis, but found that to be too much work.
Besides Chinese cities, any generally large city will have missing info, particularly in the 50m+ number.
The no. of skyscrapers is from the city proper, and satellite cities have their own entry. Additionally, I plan to conglomerate the metro areas to one.
South Korea has an especially high number of 50m+ buildings. Either this implies tons of countries have missing numbers, or that South Koreans are very active on Emporis.
The no. of 150m+ buildings on Emporis are generally the same as SSC, except on Asian cities, in which Emporis has more. These figures are highlighted in green.
Figures in red for tallest building are estimates. Emporis estimates a building's height based off its floor count. In many cases, most of the buildings have estimated heights, so the 50m+ figure will obviously be somewhat incorrect.
Only buildings are included, so towers and structures do not count.
On the right I've added a column for "no. of buildings in top 20 completed over the last decade". This column was primarily to measure the speed of skyscraper construction in a city (relative to its previous size), although I was not able to do this for every city.
The cities with the highest number of buildings in each category are:
300m+: Dubai
250m+: Dubai
200m+: Shenzhen
150m+: Shenzhen (Emporis), Hong Kong (SSC)
100m+: Hong Kong
50m+: Seoul

Feel free to use the database!

Some observations:

Unsurprisingly, developed countries and denser countries have a tendency to build taller, although I haven't yet made a graph for this relationship.
Gulf state cities score high on buildings per capita, as do Asian cities
Russia has seen a spur of apartments below 100m the previous decade
TBC


----------



## KillerZavatar (Jun 22, 2010)

the only way we ever get sensible data for all 100m buildings in the world is with an AI algorithm going thru tons and tons of satellite data. That said good work, i will certainly be inclined to use your data if i want to make a quick diagram.

according to your data there are 183 (300m+), 500 (250m+) and 1739 (200m+) buildings in the world. There are 176 completed supertalls on Skyscrapercenter. Is the missing 7 buildings a difference in what is already counted as completed, some buildings on the 299m, 300m edge being counted differently or missing data?


----------



## LivinAWestLife (Aug 24, 2019)

Yup, just a quick glance at Tangshan in the "Rate Our Skylines" section of this Forum and you'll see plenty of 100m+ buildings that are just uncounted. I think China and North Korea are the only countries to really suffer from this, as urbanization in other countries is well documented. 

Since the cities with good information (Beijing, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Shanghai etc) already show great dominance in the 100m and 150m sectors I'd say China is building up even more than I'd imagined.


----------



## KillerZavatar (Jun 22, 2010)

LivinAWestLife said:


> Since the cities with good information (Beijing, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Shanghai etc)


oh boy, the doubts i have. So often I see a tall building, count floors, get home and check websites and see zero information. I have special doubts about Shanghai, many years ago there was a thread you might be interested in. I can't believe I found it, lol

so to reiterate, the number of highrises in Shanghai of half a decade ago is already approaching twice the number that your data includes. It is mindblowing how little data we have. I stopped using any data under 200m for comparisons for that reason.


----------



## LivinAWestLife (Aug 24, 2019)

Yeah, agreed. The data from Europe and North America, at least, should be mostly accurate.
I believe if China's data was accurate their cities would blow up the record table. Using South Korea as a figure, China likely has more buildings for the same amount of people. 

It's weird how they have so many apartment blocks TBH when their urban populations are relatively small; those cities with an urban area of 2 million or below, like Mudanjiang, Anshun, Yichang etc, have way more apartments than much larger urban areas, sometimes even more per capita compared to HK (which has the most 100m+ per capita according to my list).


----------



## KlausDiggy (Jan 21, 2013)

I would add skyscrapercenter as source.



Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat – CTBUH



Here is my own list with all skyscrapers (COM & T/O) in the western world by wider classification .

Includes North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Israel and South Africa


City150 m +200 m +300 m +400 m +500 m +New York City + Jersey City314981551Chicago12834720Toronto + Mississauga12033000Moscow5517700Miami557000Panama City5323000Melbourne5217100Houston3815200Sydney369000Tel Aviv metro344000London3010100Los Angeles2712200San Francisco255100Mexiko City245000Seattle225000Boston224000Paris + La Defence212000Dallas206000Baleneario Camboriu194000Calgary185000Atlanta1710100Frankfurt / Main175000Sao Paulo160000Brisbane156000Las Vegas151000Philadelphia137100Bogota132000Sunny Isles Beach120000Montreal112000Buenos Aires111000Pittsburgh102000Minneapolis94000Gold Coast93100Vancouver + Burnaby91000Denver83000Warsaw82000Detroit81000Charlotte73000Madrid64000Monterry52100Milan52000Cartagena51000Rotterdam50000Columbus50000Cleveland43000Perth43000Johannesburg + Sandton42000Caracas42000New Orleans41000Tulsa41000Baltimore40000Tampa40000Portland40000Vienna32000Oklahoma City31000Yekaterinburg31000Cincinnati31000Manchester31000Benidorm30000Milwaukee30000St. Louis30000Indianapolis30000Hartford30000San Diego30000Auckland30000Miami Beach30100Santiago de Chile20100Edmonton21000Turin21000Lyon21000Atlantic City21000Guadalajara21000Barcelona20000Rio de Janeiro20000Medellin20000Kansas City20000Louisville20000Nashville20000Parramatta20000


----------



## LivinAWestLife (Aug 24, 2019)

Yes, I also like Skyscrapercenter as a source, and it has more info on U/C buildings. However, it doesn't have much information for buildings below the height of 150m, its missing a few buildings, and it has fewer cities as well. I do appreciate what the CTBUH has done, and their website is great for categorizing buildings by year or type. The 100m and 50m figures are quite useful to see how many "mid-rises" and infill a city has though.


----------



## A Chicagoan (Aug 9, 2016)

KillerZavatar said:


> oh boy, the doubts i have. So often I see a tall building, count floors, get home and check websites and see zero information.


That's what happens when you live in China. 

In NA, a 5-story lowrise under construction would make the news, but 200+ meter buildings in China are practically nonexistent on the internet.


----------



## DZH22 (Aug 9, 2009)

Good job with your lists. Boston has 4 150m+ buildings U/C, 3 of which are topped off. (and the 4th over 200m) More will be added to the list soon as a couple are in prep phase right now.
Totals:
200m: 4 + 1 U/C = 5
150m: 20 + 4 U/C = 24

Capture by David Z, on Flickr


----------



## LivinAWestLife (Aug 24, 2019)

I'll update the list every now and then to take into account these new buildings. Thanks for informing me! Although I guess construction will be slowing down because of COVID-19.


----------



## LivinAWestLife (Aug 24, 2019)

Added some more cities! Some interesting facts:

Of the 1275 cities in the list currently, 529 will have their tallest building built in 2010 or after. This is about 41.4% - I don't think any of the following decades will see such a spurt of new "tallest buildings", especially with China slowing their building boom :/.


----------



## KlausDiggy (Jan 21, 2013)

Frankfurt has 4 skyscrapers U/C of which one is topped off. 

Four 1 = 233m
Four 2 = 178m
One = 191m
Grand Tower = 172m (T/O)

The Spin = 128m
Four 3 = 125m
99 West = 106m
Four 4 = 105m


----------



## KillerZavatar (Jun 22, 2010)

LivinAWestLife said:


> Added some more cities! Some interesting facts:
> 
> Of the 1275 cities in the list currently, 529 will have their tallest building built in 2010 or after. This is about 41.4% - I don't think any of the following decades will see such a spurt of new "tallest buildings", especially with China slowing their building boom :/.


There is lots of C tier chinese cities that still have not build a 200m skyscraper in their city center. And I expect other countries to start building more as well, Shouldn't Indian cities and other cities with large populations all over the world have a similar booms as Chinese cities had soon?


----------



## Zaz965 (Jan 24, 2015)

^^^^
I think these C tier chinese cities compensate the absence of 200m buildings building many 100m buildings


----------



## KlausDiggy (Jan 21, 2013)

*Tallest buildings on every continent*



Posthuman2 said:


> View attachment 493869


----------



## A Chicagoan (Aug 9, 2016)

Cool infographic, but many errors...


----------

