Building floorspace and stock measurement: A review of global efforts, knowledge gaps, and research priorities

Abstract

Despite a substantial body of research-evidenced by our analysis of 2,628 peer-reviewed papers-global building floorspace data remain fragmented, inconsistent, and methodologically diverse. The lack of high-quality and openly accessible datasets poses major challenges to accurately assessing building carbon neutrality. This review focuses on global building floorspace, especially its nexus with energy and emissions. The key research areas include energy modeling, emissions analysis, building retrofits, and life cycle assessments. Each measurement approach-top-down, bottom-up, and hybrid-has its own limitations: top-down methods provide broad estimates but low accuracy, whereas bottom-up approaches are more precise but data intensive. Our simulations reveal a surge in floorspace growth across emerging economies-most notably in India, Indonesia, and Africa-with India's per capita floorspace projected to triple by 2070. We emphasize the need for a high-resolution global floorspace imagery database to compare energy efficiency, track decarbonization progress, and assess renovation impacts while promoting building sufficiency and accelerating the transition to net-zero building systems.