Tallest building in the world

What to remember

The Burj Khalifa's 828 m are measured to the tip of its spire, which on its own accounts for 242.6 m. The occupied part ends far lower, at 585 m, and the antenna takes the total height to 829.8 m, yet the record counts the 828 m figure. To count as a building, a tower must be an enclosed structure with floors people can occupy all the way up, which rules out things like radio towers. The Dubai tower stacks 163 floors, plus 2 below ground.

Work began in 2004, the same year Taipei 101 took the lead at 510 m. The tower reached its final height on 17 January 2009, and it was inaugurated and partly opened on 4 January 2010. Designed by the SOM firm and credited to American architect Adrian Smith, it rests on a main structure of reinforced concrete and anchors a new district called Downtown Dubai.

The record has come a long way. In 1894, Philadelphia City Hall topped out at 167 m. The Empire State Building reached 381 m in 1931, the Sears Tower 442 m in 1973 and the Petronas Towers 452 m in 1998. From the 167 m of 1894 to the 828 m of the Burj Khalifa, height grew by a ratio of 4.96, a 395.8% change.