# What Is A Fortune 500 Company? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-fortune-500-company/208702 "2003-10-21T14:50:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Isabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@Isabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isabelle)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-fortune-500-company/208702/1 "2003-10-21T14:50:01Z")
Is this something to strive to be? Is there anything better? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-fortune-500-company/208702/2 "2003-10-21T14:54:15Z")
Fortune magazine annually publishes a list of the top 1,000 companies in terms of gross revenue. The Fortune 500 are the top 500 from that list and the Fortune 100 is the top 100, naturally. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-fortune-500-company/208702/3 "2003-10-21T16:48:23Z")
To be absolutely precise, it’s the top list of **U.S.** companies in terms of gross revenue. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-fortune-500-company/208702/4 "2003-10-21T16:58:00Z")
It’s better to be in the Fortune 100 or the Fortune 50, if that’s what you mean. But there isn’t a more prestegious list of the top “x” companies if that’s what you mean, except perhaps the Dow Jones Industrials (30 companies selected by Dow Jones as a proxy for the overall market). I’d say that being a Fortune 500 company is more prestigious overall than being in the S&P 500. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-fortune-500-company/208702/5 "2003-10-21T18:15:32Z")
Does the list encompass all US companies, or just publicly traded ones? Where would they get figures for privately owned enterprises? ---
**Author:** ![Isabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@Isabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isabelle)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-fortune-500-company/208702/6 "2003-10-21T18:49:17Z")
I was just going to ask the same question. Who keeps track of the privatly owned? How is the total revenue reported? Taxes? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-fortune-500-company/208702/7 "2003-10-21T19:06:22Z")
In addition to the 1,000/500/100 lists of U.S. companies, _Fortune_ publishes a whole series of other lists of companies by desirability of working conditions, overall perfomance, various industires, etc. and still other lists ranking people. They also publish _global_ lists and lists for individual other countries, (_e.g._, China). [Fortune: All Lists (2003)](http://www.fortune.com/fortune/alllists) As to privately held firms: Henry Ford went public a long time ago. I’m not sure how many privately held companies would have revenues exceeding the 2,928,000,000 of Bed, Bath, and Beyond which is the 501st company on the list. (Does the Sultan of Brunei hold his oil, privately?) ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-fortune-500-company/208702/8 "2003-10-21T19:58:33Z")
It’s the biggest public companies, and basically for the reason you described: private company information isn’t publically available. However, Forbes publishes a list of the biggest Private companies based on educated guesses, if you’re interested in that. > **[Forbes Largest Private Companies](https://www.forbes.com/2002/11/07/privateland.html)** > > There are 257 companies on this year's list each with at least $1 billion in annual revenue. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-fortune-500-company/208702/9 "2003-10-21T20:03:20Z")
**Cargill** company, located here in the Twin Cities area, is privately held by the Cargill & Macmillan families, and is probably well up in the Fortune 500 range. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-fortune-500-company/208702/10 "2003-10-21T20:31:31Z")
SAIC is not a publicly traded company. It is on the fortune 500. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-fortune-500-company/208702/11 "2003-10-21T21:32:10Z")
Hmmmm. Earlier I found some link that I could’ve sworn said public only, and now I can’t find it. Further, **gazpacho** is right: SAIC is definitely private and definitely Fortune 500. So I dunno. BTW, **[t-bonham@scc.net](mailto:t-bonham@scc.net)**, Cargill tops the Forbes private company list.