Skyscrapers by numbers 2026

TL;DR

• The world closed 2025 with 2,593 completed buildings of 200 metres or more, double the 2017 count, and 389 more under construction (CVU, 9 February 2026).
• Europe holds 88 of those 2,593, about 3.5 percent, and Russia plus Türkiye account for exactly half of the European total.
• Europe's forward pipeline is thinner still: 5 buildings above 200 metres under construction or topped out on the continent, against 387 worldwide.

The world's tall-building ledger closed 2025 with 2,593 completed buildings of 200 metres or more, and Europe holds 88 of them. That is roughly 3.5 percent of the global stock, on a continent that CVU counts generously enough to include Russia and Türkiye. Strip those two out and Europe's share of the world's 200 metre towers falls to about 1.7 percent. What should worry European developers is not the standing stock. It is the pipeline.

Two conventions govern every figure below. Heights are architectural heights as recorded by the Council on Vertical Urbanism (CVU), the body known until 6 October 2025 as the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat: spires count, antennae do not. Where a figure carries a "CVU database" label rather than a report citation, RealTimes derived it by querying the Skyscraper Center building index on 3 September 2026. That query returns 2,550 completed buildings at the 200 metre threshold against the published report's 2,593, an undercount of about 1.7 percent, so read every derived count as an approximation with a known direction of error.

China built 90 of the world's 141 tall completions in 2025

The CVU 2026 Trends & Forecasts report, published 9 February 2026 and last updated 2 September 2026, closes the year like this:

• 141 buildings of 200 metres or more completed worldwide in 2025, a 2.2 percent increase on 2024 and the twelfth consecutive year above 100
• China accounted for 90 of the 141, or 64 percent, and holds 1,362 of the 2,593 buildings standing
• 255 supertalls of 300 metres or more have now been completed worldwide
• The tallest completion of the year was the JPMorganChase Tower in New York City at 423.06 metres, the city's sixth building above 400 metres
• Average height of the 2025 completion class: 238 metres, up 2.9 percent on 2024
• 222 cities across 52 countries now hold at least one completed 200 metre building

The forward picture is tighter than the count suggests. CVU records 389 buildings above 200 metres under construction or topped out, 85 of them supertalls, and a record 114 projects on hold worldwide, 88 of those in China. On that basis the council forecasts at least 140 completions in 2026 and at least 18 supertalls. Two megatalls are building: Jeddah Tower at 1,000 metres and Burj Azizi at 725 metres, both slated for 2030.

Europe's 88 towers, and why half of them do not count for EU capital

Europe's numbers are small and concentrated. On the CVU database as queried on 3 September 2026, the continent holds about 319 completed buildings of 150 metres or more against roughly 7,502 worldwide. At 200 metres the European figure is 88. At 300 metres it is 9.

• Russia holds 74 of Europe's 319 buildings above 150 metres, and Türkiye holds 76
• At the 200 metre threshold, Russia (29) and Türkiye (15) together account for 44 of 88, precisely half
• The United Kingdom is the largest non-Russian, non-Turkish holder at 54 buildings above 150 metres and 14 above 200 metres
• Europe completed 18 buildings above 150 metres in 2025, of which 10 were in Moscow, against 160 worldwide
• Only 5 of Europe's 2025 completions passed 200 metres: National Space Center Moscow (288.1 m), FOUR Frankfurt T1 (233 m), Olszynki Park W in Rzeszów (220.4 m) and two Moscow residential blocks at 200 m each
• Europe held 5 places in the World's 100 Tallest at the end of 2025, unchanged on 2024, against Asia's 62 and the Middle East's 18

The supertall picture makes the point bluntly. Of Europe's 9 completed buildings above 300 metres, 7 are Russian: Lakhta Center in St Petersburg at 462 metres and six Moscow towers led by Federation Tower at 374 metres. The only two outside Russia are Varso Tower in Warsaw at 310 metres and The Shard in London at 306 metres. For a European investor, "Europe's tallest" and "the tallest tower European capital can reach" are two different lists, a distinction the Dialogue of Skyscrapers series navigates every time it frames a pairing.

Nineteen European countries have a 150 metre building. The rest have none.

Ranked by tallest completed building, one entry per country, CVU database as of 3 September 2026:

• Russia: Lakhta Center, St Petersburg, 462 m, 2019
• Poland: Varso Tower, Warsaw, 310 m, 2022
• United Kingdom: The Shard, London, 306 m, 2013
• Türkiye: Skyland Office Tower, Istanbul, 284 m, 2017
• Germany: Commerzbank Tower, Frankfurt, 259 m, 1997
• Sweden: Karlatornet, Gothenburg, 249 m, 2024
• Spain: Torre de Cristal, Madrid, 249 m, 2008
• France: Tour First, Courbevoie, 231 m, 2011
• Austria: DC Tower I, Vienna, 220 m, 2013
• Italy: Unicredit Tower, Milan, 218 m, 2012
• Netherlands: De Zalmhaven I, Rotterdam, 215 m, 2022
• Switzerland: Roche Turm Bau 2, Basel, 205 m, 2022
• Georgia, Cyprus, Monaco, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine and Norway complete the list between 200 m and 153 m

Two readings follow. The German record has stood since 1997 and the Spanish since 2008: in two of Europe's largest economies the ceiling has not moved in a generation. And the list stops at 19 countries: Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary and Romania have no completed building of 150 metres at all. Norway's entry is an industrial extrusion tower in Halden, not an occupied one, a fair warning about reading any national ranking without opening the record. What is rising is set out in Europe's tall-building map 2026, with the two deepest markets in Warsaw and London.

Who gains, who pays

Winners on this ledger:

• Warsaw and Rzeszów: Poland put 2 of Europe's 5 tall 2025 completions on the board, and Olszynki Park W gave Rzeszów a new city record
• Frankfurt: FOUR Frankfurt T1 at 233 metres was the EU's tallest completion of 2025, with T2 at 173 metres behind it
• London: 6 of Europe's 28 buildings under construction or topped out above 150 metres are in London, the deepest single-city pipeline on the continent

Losers, or at least the exposed:

• Any thesis that treats "Europe" as one tall-building market: half the 200 metre stock sits in two jurisdictions most EU institutional capital cannot enter
• Paris and Milan: national records dated 2011 and 2012, with Tour Triangle at 181 metres the only significant French addition topped out
• Contractors pricing off the global pipeline: Europe carries 28 of the world's 813 buildings under construction above 150 metres, about 3.4 percent

What to watch

The next fixed point is CVU's 2027 Trends & Forecasts, due around February 2027, testing the forecast of at least 140 completions and 18 supertalls in 2026. For Europe the near-term markers are narrower and dated:

• Tour Triangle in Paris and Central Business Tower in Frankfurt, both scheduled for 2027
• the 2026 delivery slate, which includes Estrel Tower in Berlin, DC Tower II in Vienna and Baan Tower in Rotterdam

Watch whether Europe's under-construction count above 200 metres moves off 5 during 2027. If it does not, the continent's stock will keep aging faster than it grows, the argument taken up in when a tower ages and priced in the economics of height. The full slate sits on the Skyscraper Day Dive.