Data Studies

The Research & Thought Leadership division of the CTBUH performs objective research at all scales and distributes findings in the form of data studies that highlight critical issues facing tall buildings and future cities.

Latest Study

5 July 2023 | Tall Buildings in Numbers

Evolution of the World's Tallest Buildings

As a companion to CTBUH’s The World’s 118 Tallest Buildings, and in recognition of the 2023 completion of Merdeka 118, the world’s second-tallest building, in Kuala Lumpur, this study focuses on the past, present, and future of the world’s tallest buildings. Of the 100 tallest buildings in the world,* 60 have been completed since 2010, and most of...

All Studies

1 August 2020 | CTBUH Journal 2020 Issue III

Interactive Study on Skybridges of Significance

Linking tall buildings with horizontal spaces, whether purely for circulation or containing programming, has been a subject of fascination for as long as tall buildings have existe...

20 March 2020 | CTBUH Journal 2020 Issue II

Interactive Study on The Tallest 20 in 2020: Then and Now

This research paper undertakes a review of the 2012 report by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, “Tallest 20 in 2020: Entering the Era of the Megatall,” assessing the...

12 December 2019 | CTBUH Journal 2020 Issue I

Interactive Study on Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2019

The year 2019 was remarkable for the tall building industry, with 26 supertall buildings (300 meters or taller) completed, the most in any year. This is the second consecutive year...

11 October 2019 | CTBUH Journal 2019 Issue IV

Tall Buildings in Numbers: 50 Years of Tall Building Evolution

The default image of the skyscraper for the past 50 years in the public imagination has likely been the extruded, rectilinear corporate “box,” derived from the postwar model of min...

29 July 2019 | CTBUH Journal Issue III

Highest Special-Purpose Spaces

Since humans first began constructing tall buildings, history has been cluttered with claims of all manner of “highest” records. In this study, we examine those claims to unconvent...

25 April 2019 | CTBUH Journal 2019 Issue II

Tall Buildings in Numbers: World's Tallest Offset-Core Buildings

There has long been an interest in separating the service cores of tall buildings from the main programmed areas – to create more column-free, easily-configured floor space; to sym...