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 edit

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 edit

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.[citation needed]

Influence edit

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 edit

The following is the list of top 20 companies.[8]

Fortune 500 list of 2023
Rank Company State Industry Revenue in USD
1 Walmart   Arkansas General merchandisers $611.2 billion
2 Amazon   Washington Internet service and retailing $513.9 billion
3 ExxonMobil   Texas Petroleum refining $413.6 billion
4 Apple   California Technology $394.2 billion
5 UnitedHealth Group   Minnesota Health care: insurance and managed care $324.1 billion
6 CVS Health   Rhode Island Health care: pharmacy and other services $322.4 billion
7 Berkshire Hathaway   Nebraska Insurance: property and casualty (stock) $302 billion
8 Alphabet   California Internet services and retailing $282.8 billion
9 McKesson   Texas Wholesalers: health care $263.9 billion
10 Chevron Corporation   California Energy, oil and gas $246.2 billion
11 Cencora   Pennsylvania Wholesalers: health care $238.5 billion
12 Costco   Washington Wholesalers $226.95 billion
13 Microsoft   Washington Technology $198.2 billion
14 Cardinal Health   Ohio Healthcare $181.364 billion
15 Cigna   Connecticut Managed care, insurance $180.5 billion
16 Marathon Petroleum   Ohio Petroleum $180 billion
17 Phillips 66   Texas Energy, oil and gas $175.7 billion
18 Valero Energy   Texas Energy, oil and gas $171.1 billion
19 Ford Motor Company   Michigan Automotive $158 billion
20 The Home Depot   Georgia Retail $157.4 billion

Breakdown by state edit

This is the list of the top 18 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
12   Michigan 17
13   New Jersey 16
14   Connecticut 14
15   North Carolina 12
16   Colorado 10
  Missouri 10
  Tennessee 10

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Fortune 500". Fortune. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
  2. ^ a b "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 July 1, 2022.
  9. ^ "Visualize the Fortune 500". Fortune. Retrieved November 29, 2021.

External links edit