The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''

Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...

'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States

corporations A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and re ...

by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along with

privately held companies A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

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. The ''Fortune'' 500 is more commonly used than its subset ''Fortune'' 100 or superset ''Fortune'' 1000.

History

The ''Fortune'' 500, created by Edgar P. Smith, was first published in 1955. The original top ten companies were General Motors,

Jersey Standard ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30 ...

, U.S. Steel, General Electric, Esmark,

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automotiv ...

Armour Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or fr ...

Gulf Oil Gulf Oil was a major global oil company in operation from 1901 to 1985. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies. Prior to its merger ...

, Mobil, and DuPont.

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. 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.

Overview

The following is the list of top 10 companies.

Breakdown by state

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

References

External links

Official website
* Full list of Fortune 500 companies
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