History of the world's tallest buildings
The buildings that were the tallest secular skyscrapers, which excludes religious buildings, were:
The list of tallest buildings is based on the default metric of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), that of measuring to the highest architectural element. Other criteria would generate a different list. Shanghai World Financial Center is not on the above list, but it surpassed Taipei 101 in 2008 to become the building with the highest occupied floor. Using the criteria of highest tip (including antennae), the World Trade Center in New York City was the world's tallest building from 1972 to 2000, until the Sears Tower in Chicago (which already had a higher occupied floor than the World Trade Center) had its antenna extended to give that building the world's tallest tip; a title it held until the 2010 completion of Burj Khalifa. Petronas Towers and Taipei 101 were never the world's tallest buildings by the highest–tip criteria.
History of the world's tallest buildings
In 2004, the construction of Taipei 101 brought the height of skyscrapers to a new level, standing at with 101 floors. It is taller than the previous record holders, the Petronas Towers. Burj Khalifa surpassed the height of Taipei 101 by in 2009, making it 60% taller. It has broken several skyscraper records, and it is almost twice as tall as the Empire State Building. Burj Khalifa has also broken the record of the world's tallest structure.Since the early skyscraper boom that took place in North America, the significant number of skyscrapers in North America have dominated the 100 tallest buildings in the world. In 1930, 99 of the 100 tallest buildings in the world were located in North America. In the future, this percentage is expected to decline to only 22 percent. The predominance of skyscrapers in North America is decreasing due to skyscraper construction in other parts of the world, especially in Asia.