Vertical Urbanism Index

The City Advocacy Forum’s Vertical Urbanism Index examines the relationship between tall buildings, high density, and livability, evaluated through social, economic, and environmental dimensions.

The Index analyzes 40 urban agglomerations, comparing them objectively using data from the World Bank and the United Nations. Each urban agglomeration was assigned a score from 0 to 10 for each metric, with the lowest-performing city receiving a 0 and the highest a 10. No score was given if data was unavailable or unreliable for a specific metric. The best-performing cities are ranked by their composite score in the final column.

Explore the table below to see how tall buildings, high density, and livability compare in some of the world’s tallest cities. Hover over the bar charts to see each city’s score in the three categories.

Explore each urban area’s Vertical Urbanism Index scores below.