# Skyscraper construction speed by city

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://paragraph.com/@brandondonnelly), 2023-03-24

brian-potter, canada, china, construction, construction-physics, construction-speed, japan, skyscraper, tall-buildings, us

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Brian Potter, of Construction Physics, recently tried to determine [which cities build skyscrapers the fastest](https://constructionphysics.substack.com/p/which-city-builds-skyscrapers-the).

Here's how he went about that:

*   He started by looking up the 50 largest cities in the world on Wikipedia
    
*   He then pulled data from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat to get a list of every skyscraper completed between 2000-2020 that was over 100 meters, had a start and completion date, and had a gross floor area
    
*   The result was a list of 986 skyscrapers completed in 39 cities, most of which (~740) were completed in the US, China, Japan, and Canada
    
*   Finally, he calculated completed square feet per year and made some charts
    

Here are the results:

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/bfb6b5fbde483b98cba71a50774fca45.png)

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/e33a8a4884d325076d6c5ca35cd779f9.jpg)

And here's one thing he had to say about them:

> _Interestingly enough, the huge outlier in slow construction isn't the US, but Canada, with an average skyscraper construction speed of half that of the US’s._

For a lot more information on this topic, [click here](https://constructionphysics.substack.com/p/which-city-builds-skyscrapers-the).

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://paragraph.com/@brandondonnelly/skyscraper-construction-speed-by-city)*