# Most-Populated Buildings **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 26, 2022, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180 "2022-05-26T21:16:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/1 "2022-05-26T21:16:03Z")
I was sort of wondering if any building might be comparable to the population of a well-known city. About 26,000 people are in the Pentagon on a good day. An apartment complex in Saint Petersburg has about 18,000 residents. Any other contenders? **What building in the world, and what building in the US has the most people in it?** I suppose some stadia might take first place on game day. But I want to know about residents, or perhaps workers in an office complex. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/2 "2022-05-26T21:25:54Z")
Do you want to exclude sports stadiums from this list? A number of them have capacities above 100,000, and even mid-sized stadiums can hold far more people than the non-stadium buildings that you mentioned. > **[List of stadiums by capacity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stadiums_by_capacity)** > > The following is a list of notable sports stadiums, ordered by their capacity, which refers to the maximum number of spectators they can normally accommodate. > 66,099 (limited capacity) > (maximum) > 50,000 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/3 "2022-05-26T21:30:23Z")
The Merchandise Mart, a commercial office building in downtown Chicago, is cited on Wikipedia as having 20,000 or so tenants and visitors on a typical day, though those cites appear to be older. (I worked in the Mart for a year, in the 1990s; it is, indeed, a crazy-big building.) > **[Merchandise Mart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchandise_Mart)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > The Merchandise Mart (or the Merch Mart, or the Mart) is a commercial building located in downtown Chicago, Illinois. When it was opened in 1930, it was the largest building in the world, with 4 million square feet (372,000 m2) of floor space. The Art Deco structure is located at the junction of the Chicago River's branches. The building is a leading retailing and wholesale location, hosting 20,000 visitors and tenants per day in the late 2000s.\[... ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/4 "2022-05-26T21:30:24Z")
For some reason I do not think stadiums count. Nonetheless, we can now say that the Narendra Modi Stadium in India has a population of about the same as Midland, Texas. So I suppose we know that no office or apartment building can really compare to a brand-name American city. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/5 "2022-05-26T21:31:40Z")
The Pentagon, for example, would not make the top 300 US cities. Not even close. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/6 "2022-05-26T21:39:16Z")
I don’t know enough about the details to be sure … but I wonder if some or all of the former Kowloon Walled City could have been considered a single highly populated building. The diagram below indicated “500 buildings”, but I get the impression that many of these various buildings sort of “coalesced” into a much smaller number of “super-structures” over the years. [![](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/516e/df02/b3fc/4b8f/6900/0136/large_jpg/scm_news_1.1.nws_backart1_1_0.jpg?1366220526) ](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/516e/df02/b3fc/4b8f/6900/0136/large_jpg/scm_news_1.1.nws_backart1_1_0.jpg?1366220526) > **[Kowloon Walled City](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > > > Kowloon Walled City was an ungoverned and densely populated de jure Imperial Chinese enclave within the boundaries of Kowloon City, British Hong Kong. Originally a Chinese military fort, the walled city became an enclave after the New Territories were leased to the United Kingdom by China in 1898. Its population increased dramatically following the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. By 1990, the walled city contained 50,000... ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/7 "2022-05-26T22:07:20Z")
The Abraj Al Bait towers in Mecca has capacity for 65,000 people. Though I think it’s a complex so perhaps not strictly a single building (I suspect they are connected though so make of that what you will). Guinness calls it a building though… > **[Largest building by capacity](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/108842-largest-building-by-capacity)** > > The Guinness World Records Official site with ultimate record-breaking facts & achievements. Do you want to set a world record? Are you Officially Amazing? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/8 "2022-05-26T22:19:06Z")
Thank you. But it seems obvious that even the largest building cannot compare with mighty Roanoke Virginia with a population of 100,000. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/9 "2022-05-27T00:16:53Z")
I think there might be some difficulty in defining what constitutes “a building”. In some cities, for instance, most of downtown is connected by skybridges and/or tunnels, so you can go between them without ever stepping outside. Does that make the whole downtown “one building”? Or to take it to an even greater extreme: Many large buildings have public transit stations in them. Is everything connected by indoor transit stops “one building”? Maybe just if the transit is all subways, so the trains don’t have to go “outside”, either? ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/10 "2022-05-27T00:18:21Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > I don’t know enough about the details to be sure … but I wonder if some or all of the former Kowloon Walled City could have been considered a single highly populated building. Wow! Thank you for sharing this and giving me something new to learn about. Looking at the high resolution aerial view on the Wiki page makes me amazed that fire never did major, major damage. They do talk about a fire in 1950 I guess it was major since it displaced 17K people), but apparently nothing major after. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/11 "2022-05-27T13:38:54Z")
Not very big in raw numbers but a winner in percentage terms - almost the entire population of [Whittier, Alaska](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittier,_Alaska) lives in one condominium, [Begich Towers.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begich_Towers) ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/12 "2022-05-27T14:44:34Z")
I was trying to remember the name of that town, thanks for doing the legwork. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2022, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/13 "2022-05-29T11:46:23Z")
If we’re including buildings that house a large number of people but only temporarily (i.e., without the people residing there for any extended period), then I’m throwing in the Great Mosque of Mecca, which, at its current state of expansion, has capacity for several million worshippers at a time (four million, according to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masjid_al-Haram)). ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2022, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/14 "2022-05-29T12:09:53Z")
If we’re including the most populated buildings per square foot, the Old Brewery in New York’s Five Points might qualify for the list. Over 1000 people were crammed into it during its heyday in the mid-19th century, with as many as 26 occupants in one room. There was an average of one murder every night, leading to poor Trip Advisor reviews. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2022, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/15 "2022-05-29T12:39:38Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > I wonder if some or all of the former Kowloon Walled City could have been considered a single highly populated building. Having lived in China and visited Hong Kong several times (and stayed in Chungking Mansions once), I can smell that image. As clean and conscientious as the residents may try to be, unwanted odours are inevitable. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2022, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/16 "2022-05-29T20:03:33Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > There was an average of one murder every night, leading to poor Trip Advisor reviews. But that was actually not so bad, because not everybody could read the Morse code. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2022, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/17 "2022-05-30T03:40:48Z")
Lots of well known cities don’t have particularly large populations. Vatican City for example less than 1,000. The actual “City of London” has under 10,000 residents. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2022, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/18 "2022-05-30T12:17:34Z")
Fun fact: Vatican City contains eight Popes per square mile. And London is rather an odd case, since there are about eight different overlapping and/or nested polities that are all called “London”, and it’s not always clear which one is meant. Usually, though, what’s meant isn’t “The City”, but something with far more people. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/19 "2022-05-30T16:58:24Z")
Right, but “The City”, a term frequently used akin to how Americans use “Wall Street” because the City of London is the heart of Greater London’s finance industry, is actually the historical city of London dating back to Roman times (albeit possibly abandoned at times), and the only technical “city” called London in the region. What most people think of as London, in governance terms, is actually a devolved regional authority, that comprises both the ceremonial county of Greater London and the tiny City of London (which is also its own ceremonial county), with the executive Mayoralty of the Greater London Authority and the legislative assembly of the GLA exercising effective control of the region. The City of London’s mayor is mostly a ceremonial office, but in a strict legal sense it is a city, has been one for over a thousand years, and is the historic trading and political center of England, even though its borders had been substantially outgrown even by the Middle Ages. Probably most importantly it is a well known entity in the world of finance—per the metrics of the OP I would say several order magnitude better known than a relatively forgettable city in Virginia like Roanoke. While possibly not well known or understood by Americans, it is well known in financial circles. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2022, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180/20 "2022-05-30T19:38:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Fun fact: Vatican City contains eight Popes per square mile. I like the fact, but I’m wondering about your math. Sources differ slightly, but the area of Vatican City is roughly .17-.20 square miles. Which would work out (in round figures) to either 5 or 10 Popes per square mile, depending on your definition of the current situation. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-populated-buildings/965180.md?page=2)