Visual CapitalistModify

2026-04-06 02:22:02

Mapped: Economies Most Dependent on Remittances

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

In some economies, money sent home by workers abroad is not just helpful—it is a major pillar of national income. In Tajikistan, remittances were equal to 47.9% of GDP in 2024, the highest share in the world.

The visualization, created by Iswardi Ishak using World Bank data, maps personal remittances received as a share of GDP across 194 economies in 2024. It shows how migration-linked income plays an outsized role in a small group of countries, compared with a global average of just 0.82%.

Ranked: Where Remittances Make Up the Biggest Share

Tajikistan ranks far above every other economy, with remittances equal to 47.9% in 2024.

Nicaragua, Nepal, Honduras, and Samoa also stand out, each relying on these inflows for roughly a quarter of national output. Globally, the average is just 0.82%.

Rank	Country	Remittances as a % of GDP (2024)
1	Tajikistan	47.89
2	Lebanon	33.35
3	Nicaragua	26.64
4	Nepal	26.23
5	Honduras	25.70
6	Bermuda	25.41
7	Samoa	24.01
8	El Salvador	24.00
9	Gambia, The	22.00
10	Liberia	21.28
11	Lesotho	20.94
12	Comoros	19.60
13	Guatemala	19.12
14	Kyrgyz Republic	17.74
15	Somalia, Fed. Rep.	17.70
16	Kosovo	17.30
17	Haiti	16.30
18	Jamaica	16.19
19	Uzbekistan	14.42
20	Cabo Verde	12.25
21	Georgia	11.87
22	Marshall Islands	11.87
23	Timor-Leste	11.77
24	Senegal	11.43
25	Bosnia and Herzegovina	10.55
26	Moldova	10.54
27	Montenegro	10.34
28	Guinea-Bissau	9.79
29	Sao Tome and Principe	9.75
30	Pakistan	9.40
31	French Polynesia	9.20
32	Dominican Republic	9.05
33	Philippines	8.73
34	Zimbabwe	8.45
35	Nigeria	8.44
36	Albania	8.41
37	Jordan	8.31
38	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	7.94
39	Morocco	7.79
40	Burundi	7.69
41	Egypt, Arab Rep.	7.60
42	New Caledonia	7.26
43	Croatia	7.21
44	Fiji	7.11
45	Sri Lanka	6.79
46	Serbia	6.40
47	Tunisia	6.34
48	Ukraine	6.29
49	Bangladesh	6.11
50	Cambodia	6.10
51	Solomon Islands	6.01
52	Dominica	5.67
53	West Bank and Gaza	5.37
54	Ecuador	5.25
55	Micronesia, Fed. Sts.	4.95
56	Armenia	4.92
57	Belize	4.81
58	Ethiopia	4.77
59	Kiribati	4.76
60	Sierra Leone	4.60
61	Kenya	4.15
62	Mali	3.99
63	Ghana	3.68
64	Mexico	3.64
65	Rwanda	3.63
66	Suriname	3.63
67	India	3.52
68	Grenada	3.50
69	St. Kitts and Nevis	3.45
70	Vietnam	3.36
71	Niger	3.27
72	Curacao	3.26
73	Latvia	3.06
74	Colombia	2.83
75	Congo, Dem. Rep.	2.82
76	North Macedonia	2.70
77	Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	2.69
78	Luxembourg	2.68
79	Uganda	2.65
80	Paraguay	2.56
81	Burkina Faso	2.55
82	Romania	2.49
83	Guinea	2.46
84	Hungary	2.46
85	Guyana	2.43
86	St. Lucia	2.38
87	Bolivia	2.34
88	Bulgaria	2.33
89	Madagascar	2.33
90	Belgium	2.31
91	Mongolia	2.22
92	Slovakia	2.10
93	Cote d'Ivoire	2.03
94	Mauritius	1.92
95	Azerbaijan	1.82
96	Belarus	1.81
97	Sudan	1.81
98	Cyprus	1.80
99	Thailand	1.80
100	Peru	1.71
101	Malawi	1.65
102	Myanmar	1.55
103	Lao PDR	1.49
104	Tanzania	1.42
105	Nauru	1.37
106	Djibouti	1.35
107	Zambia	1.32
108	Andorra	1.30
109	Cameroon	1.29
110	Lithuania	1.24
111	Slovenia	1.24
112	France	1.23
113	Czechia	1.22
114	Antigua and Barbuda	1.19
115	Mozambique	1.17
116	Estonia	1.15
117	Indonesia	1.15
118	Barbados	1.14
119	Benin	1.10
120	Poland	0.95
121	Aruba	0.89
122	Mauritania	0.87
123	European Union	0.81
124	Trinidad and Tobago	0.78
125	Costa Rica	0.76
126	Iceland	0.74
127	Sweden	0.73
128	Namibia	0.72
129	Eswatini	0.69
130	Algeria	0.67
131	Botswana	0.66
132	Qatar	0.66
133	Austria	0.65
134	Panama	0.61
135	Portugal	0.59
136	Seychelles	0.55
137	Italy	0.47
138	Germany	0.45
139	Bahamas, The	0.42
140	Korea, Rep.	0.40
141	Switzerland	0.39
142	Netherlands	0.39
143	Malaysia	0.38
144	Spain	0.37
145	Denmark	0.36
146	United Arab Emirates	0.33
147	Congo, Rep.	0.28
148	Macao SAR	0.27
149	Finland	0.25
150	Iraq	0.25
151	New Zealand	0.23
152	Brazil	0.22
153	Greece	0.22
154	South Africa	0.21
155	Norway	0.20
156	Israel	0.18
157	China	0.17
158	Uruguay	0.17
159	Argentina	0.16
160	United Kingdom	0.13
161	Japan	0.12
162	Hong Kong SAR	0.11
163	Ireland	0.11
164	Australia	0.10
165	Russian Federation	0.09
166	Kazakhstan	0.08
167	Maldives	0.08
168	Turkiye	0.07
169	Malta	0.06
170	Angola	0.05
171	Canada	0.04
172	Oman	0.04
173	Chile	0.03
174	Saudi Arabia	0.03
175	United States	0.03
176	Kuwait	0.01
177	Papua New Guinea	0.01
--	Togo	8.69 (2020)
--	Tonga	42.61 (2023)
--	Tuvalu	4.16 (2023)
--	Bhutan	3.58 (2023)
--	Syrian Arab Republic	2.64 (2010)
--	Vanuatu	18.75 (2022)
--	Yemen, Rep.	15.89 (2018)
--	Afghanistan	1.87 (2023)
--	San Marino	1.10 (2023)
--	Palau	0.80 (2023)
--	Turks and Caicos Islands	0.57 (2018)
--	Iran, Islamic Rep.	0.55 (2004)
--	Venezuela, RB	0.25 (2016)
--	Cayman Islands	0.15 (2023)
--	Gabon	0.13 (2015)
--	Libya	0.03 (2006)
--	Iran, Islamic Rep.	No Data
--	World	0.82

Why Some Economies Depend More on Remittances

Remittance dependence is highest in smaller or lower-income economies where a significant share of the workforce migrates abroad. The money sent home supports household spending, education, housing, and basic consumption, giving remittances an outsized role in the domestic economy.

This reliance can be a double-edged sword. While remittances are often more stable than foreign investment during downturns, countries that depend on them are more exposed to changes in host-country labor markets, migration policy, and transfer costs.

Big Economies, Smaller Shares

Interestingly, some of the world’s largest recipients of remittances, like India, Mexico, and the Philippines, do not rank as highly when measured as a share of GDP. For example:

• India receives massive inflows in absolute terms but remittances account for just 3.5% of GDP.
• Mexico sees a similar pattern, with 3.6% of GDP tied to remittances.
• The Philippines stands higher at 8.7%, reflecting a more migration-driven economy.

Simply put: large economies have more diversified sources of income, diluting the relative impact of remittances.

The Cost of Sending Money Home

Despite their importance, remittances can come with high transaction costs. In fact, some countries face the highest remittance fees globally, reducing the amount families ultimately receive.

Lowering these costs remains a key goal for policymakers and international organizations, as even small reductions can significantly boost household income in remittance-dependent nations.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To explore how money moves across borders, check out Global Remittance Flows on the Voronoi app.

2026-04-05 23:37:02

Ranked: America’s 20 Tallest Buildings

See visuals like this from many other data creators on our Voronoi app. Download it for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

The United States is home to some of the tallest buildings in the world, with a majority of them concentrated in just two cities: New York and Chicago.

This infographic ranks the 20 tallest buildings in the U.S. based off data from the Council on Vertical Urbanism (formerly known Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat).

Detachable equipment like antennae and flagpoles are excluded from building height, although fixed rooftop spires are not.

The Dominance of New York and Chicago

The race for America’s tallest buildings is overwhelmingly concentrated in two cities: New York and Chicago account for 14 of the top 20 entries in the ranking. That dominance reflects more than a century of skyscraper construction, financing, and engineering innovation centered in the two cities.

This data table ranks the 20 tallest U.S. buildings as of April 2026:

Chicago helped pioneer the skyscraper era, but New York eventually pulled ahead in both scale and concentration of supertall development.

Today, the country’s two tallest buildings, One World Trade Center (1,776 feet) and Central Park Tower (1,550 feet), are both in New York, underscoring how much the center of gravity has shifted toward Manhattan.

A Timeline of America’s Tallest Building

When it opened in 1930, the Chrysler Building (1,046 feet) was the tallest building in the world. It only held this title for 11 months before it was surpassed by a fellow Art Deco masterpiece, the Empire State Building (1,250 feet), in 1931. The Empire State Building would remain the world’s tallest building for nearly 40 years until the topping out of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in 1970.

Chicago’s Sears Tower (1,451 feet) then took up the mantle beginning in 1974, holding the title as world’s tallest building until it was surpassed in the late 1990s by the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Sears Tower, which was eventually formally renamed the Willis Tower in 2009, remained America’s tallest building until the opening of One World Trade Center in 2014.

One World Trade Center remains the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. Meanwhile, the skyline is still evolving—New York’s JPMorgan Chase World Headquarters (1,388 ft), completed in 2025, has already climbed into the top 10 tallest buildings in the U.S.

Beyond the Two Great Skyscraper Cities

Outside New York and Chicago, only three buildings make the top 20: Philadelphia’s Comcast Technology Center, Los Angeles’ Wilshire Grand Center, and San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower.

That gap shows how exceptional the New York and Chicago skylines remain. Even relatively new towers on the West Coast are shorter than some older Midwest and East Coast peers—for example, San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower, completed in 2018, is still shorter than Chicago’s Aon Center, which opened in 1973.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out  The World’s Tallest Buildings in 2024 on Voronoi.

2026-04-05 21:17:11

Ranked: America’s Biggest Christian Groups

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

The Catholic Church is America’s largest Christian group—but it doesn’t have the most churches.

Drawing on data from the U.S. Religion Census, compiled by Julie Peasley, this visualization compares the country’s biggest Christian denominations by two measures: adherents and congregations.

The comparison highlights a key divide in how these groups are structured. Catholics lead by membership, while the Southern Baptist Convention leads by church count. Non-denominational churches also rank near the top on both measures, reflecting how the composition of American Christianity has shifted over time.

The Largest Christian Denominations in America

Here’s a closer look at how America’s largest Christian groups stack up:

What Are “Adherents” and “Congregations”?

Two metrics drive this comparison:

• Adherents: the total number of people affiliated with a religious group.
• Congregations: the number of individual places of worship.

Together, they show both the size of each group and how widely it is distributed.

America’s Largest Christian Group Has Fewer Congregations

The Catholic Church has 61.9 million adherents—more than any other group—but only about 19,400 congregations.

By contrast, the Southern Baptist Convention has 51,400 churches, the most in the dataset, despite having far fewer members. Non-denominational churches also combine a large membership base with a wide church network.

The result is a clear tradeoff: some groups concentrate members into fewer congregations, while others are spread across a much larger number of churches.

The Rise of Non-Denominational Christianity

Non-denominational Christian churches have emerged as one of the largest groups in the country. Their growth reflects broader shifts in religious identity, as many Americans move away from traditional denominational labels.

According to broader research from Pew, religious affiliation in the U.S. has remained relatively stable in recent years, but the composition within Christianity continues to evolve. Non-denominational and evangelical traditions have gained prominence, especially in fast-growing regions.

A Diverse Religious Landscape

Beyond the largest groups, the U.S. is home to a wide array of smaller denominations, from Lutheran and Methodist branches to Adventist and Episcopal churches. Each contributes to a highly fragmented but vibrant religious ecosystem.

Geography helps shape these patterns. In this map of U.S. religion, Baptist and evangelical churches are heavily concentrated in the South, whereas Catholic strongholds align with areas shaped by European and Latin American immigration.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To see how Christianity compares on a global scale, check out Ranked: Countries With the Greatest Number of Christians on the Voronoi app.

2026-04-05 19:27:32

Mapped: Where Americans 65+ Are Still Working

See visuals like this from many other data creators on our Voronoi app. Download it for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

For a growing share of Americans, retirement no longer starts at 65.

This map shows where people aged 65 and older are still working across U.S. states, based on 2024 data from the U.S. Census Bureau via FinanceBuzz.

About 22% of Americans 65+ remain in the workforce, but the share climbs to nearly one-third in some states. The gap highlights how cost of living, job availability, and shifting retirement systems are reshaping when—and whether—Americans stop working.

The Workforces With The Most Seniors

The New England states of Vermont and New Hampshire (both 28.6%) lead the country in the number of seniors still working, followed by South Dakota at 27.6%.

This data table highlights the percentage of retirement-age people still in the workforce per state.

State	People Over 65 Still Working (%)
New Hampshire	28.6%
Vermont	28.6%
South Dakota	27.6%
Massachusetts	27.2%
Maryland	26.8%
New Jersey	26.8%
Connecticut	26.5%
Nebraska	26.1%
North Dakota	25.7%
Hawaii	25.6%
Alaska	25.5%
Maine	24.8%
Montana	24.6%
Colorado	24.5%
Kansas	24.5%
Rhode Island	24.5%
North Carolina	24.0%
Virginia	24.0%
Texas	23.8%
Iowa	23.7%
Minnesota	23.5%
Utah	23.5%
New York	23.0%
Illinois	22.8%
California	22.7%
Indiana	22.2%
Wyoming	22.2%
Pennsylvania	22.0%
Tennessee	21.8%
Georgia	21.7%
Delaware	21.5%
Nevada	21.5%
Ohio	21.5%
Missouri	21.4%
Wisconsin	21.4%
Louisiana	21.1%
Oklahoma	21.1%
Washington	20.9%
Idaho	20.5%
New Mexico	20.5%
Florida	20.1%
Michigan	20.1%
Kentucky	19.9%
South Carolina	19.9%
Mississippi	19.6%
Alabama	19.2%
Arizona	19.2%
Oregon	19.1%
Arkansas	18.9%
West Virginia	16.7%
U.S. Average	22.4%

A clear regional pattern emerges: Northeastern states dominate the top ranks, with many posting rates above 26%. Higher living costs and longer life expectancy likely contribute to more Americans 65+ staying in the workforce.

Most people are not working full-time, however. In fact, among its retirement-age workers, Vermont has the highest concentration of part-time employees nationwide, reflecting in part the social role work plays in many older Americans’ lives.

The Two Full-Time States

On the flip side, there’s Maryland, which has the highest share of full-time retirement-age workers in the country.

Maryland and Hawaii are actually the only two states in which a majority of working people aged 65 and up are employed full-time. Full-time work is generally essential for seniors who cannot rely on other retirement sources of income, such as Social Security, or who obtain needed benefits through their job.

The decline of traditional pensions is a key driver behind this shift. With retirement savings increasingly tied to 401(k) plans and market performance, many Americans are working longer to maintain financial security.

West Virginia and the Truly Retired

Among the 50 states in the country, West Virginia (16.7%) has the lowest share of retirement-age workers. It’s followed by Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, and Oregon, all of which sit around 19%.

In lower-ranking states like West Virginia and Arkansas, fewer Americans 65+ remain in the workforce—likely reflecting a mix of fewer job opportunities and lower living costs. In these areas, retirement may still be more attainable than continuing to work.

They may also have differing lifestyle preferences, electing to devote more time to family commitments than to the structure or social component of a job or so-called “side hustle.”

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Mapping Unemployment Claims per 100,000 Workers on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

2026-04-05 00:56:23

Ranked: The World’s Richest Music Artists

See visuals like this from many other data creators on our Voronoi app. Download it for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

The music industry’s biggest stars are no longer just performers. Many are building billion-dollar business empires.

This ranking shows the 10 wealthiest musicians globally, led by Jay-Z with an estimated net worth of $2.8 billion—putting him ahead of Taylor Swift, whose fortune is largely driven by touring and music ownership.

While fans may assume chart success equals wealth, today’s richest artists have built empires far beyond music, from liquor brands to cosmetics companies. Data is sourced from the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List as of 2026.

Brooklyn’s Representation At The Top

No musical artist has accumulated more wealth than Jay-Z, whose net worth has reached $2.8 billion.

Born Shawn Carter in December of 1969 in Brooklyn, New York, the 56-year old rapper and music mogul’s career has spanned 30 years, beginning with his 1996 debut album Reasonable Doubt, in which he told tales of his criminal past. In 2019, Jay-Z became hip hop’s first billionaire.

Here are the 10 richest music artists in the world as of March 2026:

Rank	Artist	Net Worth
1	Jay-Z	$2.8B
2	Taylor Swift	$2B
3	Bruce Springsteen	$1.2B
4	Beyonce	$1B
5	Rihanna	$1B
6	Dr. Dre	$1B
7	Jimmy Buffett (and estate)	$1B
8	Madonna	$850M
9	Selena Gomez	$700M
10	Celine Dion	$570M

Taylor Swift ranks second with $2 billion, driven largely by touring and music. Jay-Z’s lead comes from business ventures and investments.

The secret to Jay-Z’s success comes from how he has leveraged his successful music career to pursue other business ventures outside of music. Until 2013, he owned a small minority stake in the Brooklyn Nets (formerly New Jersey Nets) basketball team, as well as their home stadium, the Barclays Center. In the early 2020s, he sold larger stakes in liquor brands such as Ace of Spades and D’usse to major companies like LVMH and Bacardi.

Today Jay-Z has gone beyond the label of “greatest rapper alive” to become the wealthiest music icon in the world, as well as an enduring figure in pop culture. His entertainment company Roc Nation manages musical artists and athletes, and has produced the Super Bowl Halftime Show since 2019.

The Billionaires’ Club of Music

Jay-Z is not the only person to go from music star to billionaire. In fact, aside from the late Jimmy Buffett he’s joined by six others, including Taylor Swift ($2 billion) and Bruce Springsteen ($1.2 billion), as well as Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Dr. Dre (all $1 billion).

Many of these other billionaires have also leveraged their music to pursue entrepreneurial outlets. For example, while Dr. Dre is perhaps most famous for launching the careers of successful rappers like Eminem and Kendrick Lamar, his biggest financial success stemmed from the $3 billion acquisition by Apple of his Beats Entertainment company in 2014.

And then there’s Rihanna. The Barbadian singer, who has more Diamond-certified singles than any other artist worldwide, has over the last decade turned away from music to instead build the Fenty Beauty cosmetics brand, a multibillion-dollar empire which doubled its revenue in 2022.

This cosmetics angle has been lucrative elsewhere: American singer Selena Gomez launched her $1.3 billion makeup brand, Rare Beauty, in 2020, contributing to her own $700 million net worth.

Taylor Swift and the Rise of Swiftonomics

Unlike her billionaire peers on this list, Taylor Swift became a billionaire in October 2023 owing primarily to the value of her music catalog and the runaway success of her most recent stadium tour, The Eras Tour. Per Forbes, Swift is the first musician to become a billionaire primarily based on her songs and live performances.

Her multibillion-dollar net worth stems in part from over $800 million from royalties and touring, a 12-album, $600 million musical catalog, and over $110 million in real estate holdings.

The Eras Tour smashed global records upon launch and in the years since, running from March 2023 to November 2024 and grossing over $2 billion at the box office, making it the highest-grossing tour in world history. Over 10 million fans attended the 149-show tour across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, while the U.S. leg of the tour reportedly added over $4 billion to the national gross domestic product in what has been dubbed “Swiftonomics.”

Margaritaville Forever

Nine of these musicians are still alive, while Jimmy Buffett passed away at age 76 in September 2023 as a billionaire.

Buffett was famous for his 1977 classic song “Margaritaville,” as well as the multimedia empire it spawned, which at the time of his death had grown from t-shirts and merchandise to full restaurants and resorts.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Taylor Swift Remains the Queen of Spotify on Voronoi.

2026-04-04 22:24:42

Ranked: The 20 Tallest Buildings in the World

See visuals like this from many other data creators on our Voronoi app. Download it for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

The race to build higher has produced some of the most recognizable skylines on Earth, but one tower still stands far above the rest. At 2,717 feet, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa remains nearly 500 feet taller than the second-place building.

This graphic ranks the 20 tallest buildings in the world as of April 2026, using data from the Council on Vertical Urbanism (formerly known Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat).

Heights include architectural features such as spires, but exclude changeable additions like antennae and flagpoles.

The Tallest Building in the World

Dubai’s Burj Khalifa has held the title of world’s tallest building since 2010, and it still leads by a remarkable margin. At 2,717 feet, it stands nearly 500 feet taller than second-place Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, underscoring how far ahead it remains even as new supertall towers continue to rise.

The table below shows the 20 tallest buildings in the world as of April 2026, highlighting just how concentrated these megatall towers are in Asia.

Rank	Building	City	Height (feet)
1	Burj Khalifa	Dubai	2,717
2	Merdeka 118	Kuala Lumpur	2,227
3	Shanghai Tower	Shanghai	2,073
4	Makkah Royal Clock Tower	Mecca	1,972
5	Ping An Finance Center	Shenzhen	1,965
6	Lotte World Tower	Seoul	1,819
7	One World Trade Center	New York City	1,776
8	Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre	Guangzhou	1,739
8	Tianjin CTF Finance Centre	Tianjin	1,739
10	CITIC Tower	Beijing	1,731
11	TAIPEI 101	Taipei	1,667
12	Shanghai World Financial Center	Shanghai	1,614
13	International Commerce Centre	Hong Kong	1,588
14	Wuhan Greenland Center	Wuhan	1,560
15	Central Park Tower	New York City	1,550
16	Lakhta Center	St. Petersburg	1,516
17	Vincom Landmark 81	Ho Chi Minh City	1,513
18	The Exchange 106	Kuala Lumpur	1,488
19	Changsha IFS Tower T1	Changsha	1,483
19	Petronas Twin Tower 1	Kuala Lumpur	1,483
19	Petronas Twin Tower 2	Kuala Lumpur	1,483

The Burj Khalifa is not alone in the Middle East. The Makkah Royal Clock Tower, located in the Saudi religious city of Mecca, stands at 1,972 feet tall and is thus the fourth-tallest building in the world.

In fact, Saudi Arabia is eager to replace the Burj Khalifa at the top of the leaderboard. The Gulf monarchy has been building the Jeddah Tower on and off since 2013, with the aims of having it opened by early 2028. This one-kilometer-tall tower, to be built in the western port city of the same name, will be upon completion the tallest building in the world.

Asia’s Dominance Since the 1990s

Asia has led the global skyscraper race for decades. A major turning point came in 1998, when Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Twin Towers (1,483 feet) overtook Chicago’s Sears Tower and shifted the title of world’s tallest building to Asia.

Malaysia has seen two taller buildings open in the years since, joined by Asian peers like South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. But none can compare to China, which today has more skyscrapers than the next 11 countries combined. Including the International Commerce Centre (1,588 feet) in Hong Kong, China houses nearly half of the world’s top 20 buildings.

Built in 2015, the Shanghai Tower (2,073 feet) is China’s tallest building and the third-tallest building worldwide. Since 2021, it’s been home to the world’s highest luxury hotel above ground level, the J Hotel Shanghai Tower.

Tallest Non-Asian Skyscrapers Around the World

Only three of the world’s top 20 tallest buildings are located outside of Asia, with two of these in New York and one in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.

One World Trade Center, locally nicknamed the Freedom Tower owing to its association with the September 11th attacks which destroyed its predecessors, stands as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at 1,776 feet tall, its height an allusion to the year of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

Also in New York is the Central Park Tower, the tallest residential building in the world at 1,550 feet. Meanwhile, the Lakhta Center in St. Petersburg, at 1,516 feet, is Europe’s tallest building.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out The World’s Tallest Buildings in 2024 on Voronoi.