Toronto is North America’s new high-rise boomtown. Nowhere else in North America are more high-rises and skyscrapers under construction, according to the latest figures from Emporis, a buildings database based in Germany. It says that Toronto currently has 147 such construction sites, more than twice as many as New York City, the centre of high-rise architecture in North America.

No other major city in the U.S. or Canada comes even close to Toronto’s – or even New York City’s – high-rise construction activity. Third place in the ranking is occupied by Vancouver, with 21 high-rises under construction; Montreal follows close behind with just one site fewer. Boston, Ottawa and Richmond (B.C.), the three cities in joint eighth place, have only 12 high-rises each being built.

Toronto’s construction industry has seen a continuous upward trend over recent years. October 2012 saw 15 more high-rise building sites in Toronto than in November 2011. In New York City in the same period, construction of high-rises decreased by just under a fifth, from 86 in September 2011 to 72 in October 2012.

Despite the current construction boom, Toronto will be unable to compete with New York City in terms of the total number of completed high-rises – even over the course of decades to come. There are currently 6,009 completed high-rises in New York; Toronto, by contrast, has 2,501, more than 3,500 fewer. Hong Kong, with 7,829, is the city with the most high-rises and skyscrapers in the world.

Emporis defines high-rises as multi-storey buildings of at least 35 meters, or of 12 to 39 storeys if the height is not known. Those at least 100 meters tall, or 40 storeys and more, are classed as skyscrapers.