Fortune Global 500

The Fortune Global 500, also known as Global 500, is an annual ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. The list is compiled and published annually by Fortune magazine.

Until 1989 it listed only non-U.S. industrial corporations under the title "International 500", while the Fortune 500 contained and still contains exclusively U.S. corporations. In 1990, U.S. companies were added to compile a truly global list of top industrial corporations as ranked by sales. Since 1995, the list has had its current form, listing also top financial corporations and service providers by revenue.

From 2001 to 2012, there has been significant change in the geographical distribution of the companies in the Global 500 rankings. The number of North American–based companies have reduced from 215 in 2001 to 144 in 2011, whereas the contribution of Asian-based companies have increased rapidly from 116 in 2001 to 188 in 2012. The share of European-based companies have increased marginally from 158 to 160 over the decade.[1]

Controversy

Several inconsistencies exist in Fortune's ranking of cities with the most Fortune 500 headquarters. On June 3, 2011, the Atlanta Business Chronicle stated examples of Fortune including regional headquarters for some cities, not including regional headquarters for other cities, and in some cases, not including headquarters that are physically located inside a city limit.[2]

Fortune list of year 2014

The rankings, which have been released by the magazine at its website, appear in the July 7, 2014, issue of the magazine.

The following is the list of top 10 companies, as published on July 7, 2014. It is based on the companies' fiscal year ended on or before March 31, 2014.[3]

Rank Company Country Industry Revenue in USD
1 Walmart  United States Retail $476.3 billion
2 Royal Dutch Shell  Netherlands
 United Kingdom
Petroleum $459.6 billion
3 Sinopec  China Petroleum $457.2 billion
4 China National Petroleum Corporation  China Petroleum $432.0 billion
5 ExxonMobil  United States Petroleum $407.7 billion
6 BP  United Kingdom Petroleum $396.8 billion
7 State Grid Corporation of China  China Power $333.4 billion
8 Volkswagen  Germany Automobiles $261.5 billion
9 Toyota  Japan Automobiles $256.5 billion
10 Glencore   Switzerland Commodities $232.7 billion

Fortune had previously listed Shell as a Dutch company, but as of the 2013 listing, it is listed as British/Dutch.

Breakdown by country

This is the list of the top 10 countries with the most Global 500 companies.[4]

RankCountryCompanies
1  United States 128
2  China 95
3  Japan 57
4  France 31
5  Germany 28
6  United Kingdom 28
7  South Korea 17
8   Switzerland 13
9  Netherlands 13
10  Canada 10

The Global 500 includes 1 company under the heading "Britain/Netherlands". That company is counted in the tally for both countries.

See also

References

  1. "A New Perspective on the Corporate World". CNN Money, Fortune Magazine. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  2. Maria Saporta. "Some cities rankings are overstated". Atlanta Business Chronicle. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
  3. "Global 500". Fortune. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
  4. "Global 500 2014". Fortune. Number of companies data taken from the "Country" box.

External links