Fortune Global 500

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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-US industrial corporations under the title "International 500" while the Fortune 500 contained and still contains exclusively US 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 was a significant change in the geographical distribution of the companies in the Global 500 rankings. The number of North American-based companies reduced from 215 in 2001 to 144 in 2011, and the contribution of Asian-based companies increased rapidly from 116 in 2001 to 188 in 2012. Most of this growth is accounted for by the rapid increase in the number of Chinese Global 500 companies, of which there were 98 by 2015 (increasing from only 10 in 2001) The share of European-based companies 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 Global 500 list of year 2015

The rankings, which have been released by the magazine at its website, appear in the July 22, 2015, issue of the magazine.

The following is the list of top 10 companies, as published on July 22, 2015. It is based on the companies' fiscal year ended on or before March 31, 2015.[3]

Rank Company Country Industry Revenue in USD
1 Walmart  United States Retail $485.7 billion
2 Sinopec  China Petroleum $446.8 billion
3 Royal Dutch Shell  Netherlands
 United Kingdom
Petroleum $431.3 billion
4 China National Petroleum Corporation  China Petroleum $428.6 billion
5 ExxonMobil  United States Petroleum $382.6 billion
6 BP  United Kingdom Petroleum $358.7 billion
7 State Grid Corporation of China  China Power $339.4 billion
8 Volkswagen  Germany Automobiles $268.6 billion
9 Toyota  Japan Automobiles $247.7 billion
10 Glencore   Switzerland
 United Kingdom
Commodities $221.0 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]

Rank Country Companies
1  USA 127
2  China 98
3  Japan 54
4  France 31
5  United Kingdom 29
6  Germany 28
7  South Korea 17
8  Netherlands 13
9   Switzerland 12
10  Canada 11

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

According to the Fortune website, as of 2015 the Global 500 are represented by a total of 36 countries. However, 472 (94.4%) of the Global 500 are represented by only 16 countries: two in North America (Canada, USA,) six in Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK,) four in East Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan,) plus Australia, Brazil, India and Russia. Of these 16 countries, 13 are the world's largest economies as estimated by the IMF (List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)) and are also members of the G20 (the exceptions being the Netherlands, Switzerland and Taiwan.)

See also

References

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External links