Tokyo Skytree vs Shanghai Tower
Tokyo Skytree and Shanghai 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo Skytree | 634 m | 2,080 ft | height |
| Shanghai Tower | 632 m | 2,073 ft | height |
What the scale shows
Tokyo Skytree and Shanghai 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 Tokyo Skytree's 634 m takes 7.5 minutes and Shanghai Tower's 632 m takes 7.5 minutes.
Read the rest — 7 more sections
What each figure means
The figure for Tokyo Skytree is its height (tower height). The figure for Shanghai Tower is its height (architectural height).
Crossing them
In people: Tokyo Skytree is 373 adults of 1.7 m tall, Shanghai Tower is 371.8. By size Tokyo Skytree is 2nd of the 23 buildings & towers on this site and Shanghai Tower is 3rd, so 1 place separates them in the ranking.
How to read these two figures
Before trusting any comparison, check what each number measures. The Tokyo Skytree is given as a height, tower height. The Shanghai Tower is given as a height, architectural height. 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 Tokyo Skytree is number 28 from the top and the Shanghai Tower is number 29.
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 Tokyo Skytree in 63 seconds and the Shanghai Tower in 63 seconds. Sound, at about 343 m/s in air, takes 1.8 seconds for the larger and 1.8 seconds for the smaller. A jet cruising at 900 km/h needs 2.5 seconds and 2.5 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 Tokyo Skytree measures 634 m, which is 2,080 ft or 693.4 yards. The Shanghai Tower measures 632 m, which is 2,073 ft.
Questions people ask about this pair
Which is bigger, the Tokyo Skytree or the Shanghai 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 Tokyo Skytree is tower height; the Shanghai Tower is architectural height.
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.