Empire State Building vs Willis Tower
Empire State Building and Willis Tower are the same size to within half a percent.
Stacking one on the other changes nothing — they match.
The comparison in numbers
| Thing | Size | In feet | Measured as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empire State Building | 443 m | 1,454 ft | height |
| Willis Tower | 442 m | 1,450 ft | height |
What the scale shows
Empire State Building and Willis Tower are the same size to within half a percent. Both are buildings & towers, so the figures describe the same kind of thing.
Walking pace is 1.4 m/s, so crossing Empire State Building's 443 m takes 5.3 minutes and Willis Tower's 442 m takes 5.3 minutes.
Read the rest — 7 more sections
What each figure means
The figure for Empire State Building is its height (to the tip of the antenna (381 m to the roof)). The figure for Willis Tower is its height (to the roof (527 m with antennas)).
Crossing them
In people: Empire State Building is 261 adults of 1.7 m tall, Willis Tower is 260.1. By size Empire State Building is 11th of the 23 buildings & towers on this site and Willis Tower is 12th, so 1 place separates them in the ranking.
How to read these two figures
Before trusting any comparison, check what each number measures. The Empire State Building is given as a height, to the tip of the antenna (381 m to the roof). The Willis Tower is given as a height, to the roof (527 m with antennas). Both are height figures, so putting them on one baseline is a like-for-like comparison, although the exact individual or convention still matters.
Building heights depend on the rule used: architectural height counts spires but not antennas, tip height counts everything. The basis is named with each figure.
Where the pair sits among all the sizes here
Across all 86 things on this site, the Empire State Building is number 37 from the top and the Willis Tower is number 38.
Because the collection spans 13 mm up to 1,392,700 km, a ratio of 107,130,769,231× from smallest to largest, the position of a pair says a lot: the pair sits in the middle of the range rather than at an extreme.
Time to cross each one
A sprinter holding about 10 m/s covers the Empire State Building in 44 seconds and the Willis Tower in 44 seconds. Sound, at about 343 m/s in air, takes 1.3 seconds for the larger and 1.3 seconds for the smaller. A jet cruising at 900 km/h needs 1.8 seconds and 1.8 seconds.
These times assume a straight line and constant speed, which no real crossing has, but they turn a number in metres into something the body understands. At any fixed speed the travel times keep the same 1× ratio as the sizes.
The same figures in other units
The Empire State Building measures 443 m, which is 1,454 ft or 484.7 yards. The Willis Tower measures 442 m, which is 1,450 ft.
Questions people ask about this pair
Which is bigger, the Empire State Building or the Willis Tower?
They match to within half a percent on the figures used here.
Are the two figures measured the same way?
Yes in kind: both are height figures. The Empire State Building is to the tip of the antenna (381 m to the roof); the Willis Tower is to the roof (527 m with antennas).
Where do the numbers come from?
Each item has its own page that names the measurement and links to the Wikipedia article it was taken from. Some figures are rounded, and animals vary from one individual to the next, so treat them as representative values rather than records for every case.
How the sizes are taken. Each figure says what it measures — height, length, diameter or elevation — and for which individual or convention. Everything is drawn standing upright on one baseline so a single scale holds, including things that are long rather than tall. Values come from the linked Wikipedia article for each item.