Fortune 500

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The July 24, 2006 issue of Fortune, featuring its Fortune 500 list Fortune g500 cover06.jpg
The July 24, 2006 issue of Fortune , featuring its Fortune 500 list

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]

Contents

History

The Fortune 500, created by Edgar P. Smith, was first published in January 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. [6] 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. [7]

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. [8]

Overview

The following is the list of top 20 companies. [9]

Fortune 500 list of 2024
RankCompanyStateIndustryRevenue in USD
1 Walmart Flag of Arkansas.svg  Arkansas General merchandisers$648.1 billion
2 Amazon Flag of Washington.svg  Washington Internet services and retailing$574.8 billion
3 Apple Flag of California.svg  California Computers, office equipment$383.3 billion
4 UnitedHealth Group Flag of Minnesota.svg  Minnesota Health care: insurance and managed care$371.6 billion
5 Berkshire Hathaway Flag of Nebraska.svg  Nebraska Insurance: property and casualty (stock)$364.5 billion
6 CVS Health Flag of Rhode Island.svg  Rhode Island Health care: pharmacy and other services$357.8 billion
7 ExxonMobil Flag of Texas.svg  Texas Petroleum refining$344.6 billion
8 Alphabet Inc. Flag of California.svg  California Internet services and retailing$307.4 billion
9 McKesson Corporation Flag of Texas.svg  Texas Wholesalers: health care$276.7 billion
10 Cencora Flag of Pennsylvania.svg  Pennsylvania Wholesalers: health care$262.2 billion
11 Costco Flag of Washington.svg  Washington General merchandisers$242.3 billion
12 JPMorgan Chase Flag of New York.svg  New York Commercial banks$239.4 billion
13 Microsoft Flag of Washington.svg  Washington Computer software$211.9 billion
14 Cardinal Health Flag of Ohio.svg  Ohio Wholesalers: health care$205.0 billion
15 Chevron Corporation Flag of California.svg  California Petroleum refining$200.9 billion
16 Cigna Flag of Connecticut.svg  Connecticut Health care: pharmacy and other services$195.3 billion
17 Ford Motor Company Flag of Michigan.svg  Michigan Motor vehicles & parts$176.2 billion
18 Bank of America Flag of North Carolina.svg  North Carolina Commercial banks$171.9 billion
19 General Motors Flag of Michigan.svg  Michigan Motor vehicles & parts$171.8 billion
20 Elevance Health Flag of Indiana.svg  Indiana Health care: insurance and managed care$171.3 billion

Breakdown by state

This is the list of the top 18 states with the most companies within the Fortune 500 as of 2024. [10]

Breakdown by state
RankStateCompanies
1Flag of California.svg  California 57
2Flag of New York.svg  New York 52
Flag of Texas.svg  Texas 52
4Flag of Illinois.svg  Illinois 32
5Flag of Ohio.svg  Ohio 27
6Flag of Virginia.svg  Virginia 24
7Flag of Florida.svg  Florida 22
8Flag of Pennsylvania.svg  Pennsylvania 20
9Flag of Georgia (U.S. state).svg  Georgia 18
10Flag of Minnesota.svg  Minnesota 17
11Flag of Massachusetts.svg  Massachusetts 16
Flag of Michigan.svg  Michigan 16
13Flag of Connecticut.svg  Connecticut 15
14Flag of New Jersey.svg  New Jersey 14
15Flag of North Carolina.svg  North Carolina 12
Flag of Washington.svg  Washington 12
17Flag of Arizona.svg  Arizona 10
Flag of Tennessee.svg  Tennessee 10

Breakdown by metropolitan area

This is the list of the top 10 metropolitan statistical areas with the most companies within the Fortune 500 as of 2024. [11]

Breakdown by metropolitan area
RankMetropolitan areaCompanies
1Flag of New York City.svg  New York City 46
2Flag of Chicago, Illinois.svg  Chicago 30
3Flag of Houston, Texas.svg  Houston 23
4Flag of Dallas.svg  Dallas 20
Flag of San Jose, California.svg  San Jose, California 20
Flag of Washington, D.C.svg  Washington, D.C. [a] 20
6Flag of Atlanta.svg  Atlanta 16
7Flag of Minneapolis.svg  Minneapolis 15
8Flag of Boston.svg  Boston 14
Flag of San Francisco, California.svg  San Francisco 14
  1. ↑ Amazon is co-headquartered between Seattle and Arlington, Virginia, the latter being located in the Washington metropolitan area.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Fortune 500". Fortune. Retrieved 2024-06-05.
  2. 1 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. ↑ Semczuk, Nina (2024-03-13). "What Are Fortune 500 Companies?". Bankrate. Retrieved 2024-05-22.
  7. ↑ Groves, Martha (April 26, 1995). "Service Now Counts with Fortune 500". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ "Fortune 500 List of Companies 2022" . Fortune . Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  10. ↑ "Map: The Number of Fortune 500 Companies in Each U.S. State". Visual Capitalist. Retrieved November 9, 2024.
  11. ↑ "Markets with the Most Fortune 500 Headquarters in 2024". Real Page. Retrieved March 17, 2025.
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