Fortune 500

The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years.[1] The list includes publicly held companies, along with privately held companies for which revenues are publicly available. The concept of the Fortune 500 was created by Edgar P. Smith, a Fortune editor, and the first list was published in 1955.[2][3] The Fortune 500 is more commonly used than its subset Fortune 100 or superset Fortune 1000.[4]

The July 24, 2006 issue of Fortune, featuring its Fortune 500 list

History

The Fortune 500, created by Edgar P. Smith, was first published in 1955.[2] The original top ten companies were General Motors, Jersey Standard, U.S. Steel, General Electric, Esmark, Chrysler, Armour, Gulf Oil, Mobil, and DuPont.[5]

Methodology

The original Fortune 500 was limited to companies whose revenues were derived from manufacturing, mining, and energy exploration. At the same time, Fortune published companion "Fortune 50" lists of the 50 largest commercial banks (ranked by assets), utilities (ranked by assets), life insurance companies (ranked by assets), retailers (ranked by gross revenues) and transportation companies (ranked by revenues). Fortune magazine changed its methodology in 1994 to include service companies. With the change came 291 new entrants to the famous list including three in the Top 10.[6] There is a lag in creating the list, so for example, the 2019 Fortune 500 is based on each company's financial years ending in late 2018 (most commonly, on December 31), or early 2019.

Influence

As of 2020, the Fortune 500 companies represent approximately two-thirds of the United States' Gross Domestic Product with approximately $14.2 trillion in revenue, $1.2 trillion in profits, and $20.4 trillion in total market value. These revenue figures also account for approximately 18% of the gross world product. The companies collectively employ a total of 29.2 million people worldwide, or nearly 0.4% of the world's total population.[7]

Overview

The following is the list of top 10 companies.[8]

Fortune 500 list of 2021
Rank Company State Industry Revenue in USD
1 Walmart  Arkansas General merchandisers $572.8 billion
2 Amazon  Washington Internet service and retailing $469.8 billion
3 Apple  California Computers, office equipment $365.8 billion
4 CVS Health  Rhode Island Health care: pharmacy and other services $292.1 billion
5 UnitedHealth Group  Minnesota Health care: insurance and managed care $287.6 billion
6 ExxonMobil  Texas Petroleum refining $285.6 billion
7 Berkshire Hathaway  Nebraska Insurance: property and casualty (stock) $276.1 billion
8 Alphabet  California Internet services and retailing $257.6 billion
9 McKesson  Texas Wholesalers: health care $238.2 billion
10 AmerisourceBergen  Pennsylvania Wholesalers: health care $214.0 billion

Breakdown by state

This is the list of the top 10 states with the most companies within the Fortune 500.[9]

Breakdown by state
Rank State Companies
1  California 53
 New York 53
3  Texas 49
4  Illinois 28
5  Ohio 25
6  Pennsylvania 24
7  Virginia 22
8  Florida 20
9  Georgia 19
10  Massachusetts 18
 Minnesota 18

See also

  • 40 under 40 (Fortune Magazine)
  • Fortune Global 500
  • Fortune India 500
  • Fortune 1000
  • List of largest companies in the United States by revenue
  • List of largest companies by revenue
  • List of Fortune 500 computer software and information companies
  • List of women CEOs of Fortune 500 companies
  • Forbes Global 2000
  • Total Fortune 1000 companies by urban area list

References

  1. "Fortune 500". Fortune. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
  2. "Edgar Smith, 69, Dies; Retired Time Executive". The New York Times. October 12, 1989. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  3. "1955 Full list". Fortune. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  4. Williams, Sean (June 4, 2015). "Fortune 100: Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About This Popular Annual Ranking". The Motley Fool. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  5. "What happened to the first Fortune 500?". Fortune. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
  6. Groves, Martha (April 26, 1995). "Service Now Counts with Fortune 500". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  7. Klooster, Alison (May 18, 2020). "FORTUNE Announces 2020 FORTUNE 500 List, Launches First Ever "History Of The FORTUNE 500" Data Analytics Visualization Site With Partner Qli". Fortune. Retrieved October 1, 2020 via Cision PR Newswire.
  8. "Fortune 500 List of Companies 2022". Fortune. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  9. "Visualize the Fortune 500". Fortune. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
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