List of tallest buildings and structures
The world's tallest artificial structure is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (of the United Arab Emirates). The building gained the official title of "Tallest Building in the World" and the tallest self-supported structure at its opening on January 9, 2010. The second-tallest self-supporting structure and the tallest tower is the Tokyo Skytree. The tallest guyed structure is the KVLY-TV mast.
History of the world's tallest buildings
However, though all of these are "structures", some are not "buildings" in the sense of being regularly inhabited or occupied. It is in this sense of being regularly inhabited or occupied that the term "building" is generally understood to mean when determining what is the world's tallest building. The non-profit international organization Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), which maintains a set of criteria for determining the height of tall buildings, defines a "building" as "(A) structure that is designed for residential, business or manufacturing purposes" and "has floors".