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.
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
The CTBUH maintains an extensive database of the tallest buildings in the world, organized by various categories. Buildings under construction are also included, although not ranked until completion. The CTBUH also produces an annual list of the ten tallest buildings completed in that particular year. Topping the 2008 list was the Shanghai World Financial Center in Shanghai, the then tallest building in the world according to the criteria of highest occupied floor, and home to the world's highest observation deck. Second on the 2008 list was the Almas Tower in Dubai, third was the Minsheng Bank Building in Wuhan which stands at , whilst fourth was The Address Downtown Burj Dubai (). All in all, six of the ten tallest buildings completed in 2008 are located in Asia, three in the Middle East and one in North America.