List of tallest buildings
The international non-profit organization Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) was formed in 1969 and announces the title of "The World's Tallest Building" and sets the standards by which buildings are measured. It maintains a list of the 100 tallest completed buildings in the world. The organization currently ranks Burj Khalifa in Dubai as the tallest at . The CTBUH only recognizes buildings that are complete however, and some buildings included within the lists in this article are not considered finished by the CTBUH.
History of the world's tallest buildings
The skyscraper was invented in Chicago in 1884 when the Home Insurance Building was constructed using a steel-frame with curtain walls instead of load-bearing walls. For the next hundred years, the world's tallest building was always in the United States with New York City accumulating 86 years, and Chicago accumulating 30 years. After just over a century (1885–1998), the distinction moved to the Eastern Hemisphere. Malaysia was the first country to break the United States' record of constructing the tallest buildings in the world when the Petronas Twin Towers were completed in 1998. Taiwan's Taipei 101 was the next building to hold the record, beginning in 2004.