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 u.s. corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years . 1 the list includes public 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 wider list fortune 1000 . 4 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 . 5 see also edit united states portal companies portal 40 under 40 fortune global 500 fortune india 500 list of largest companies by revenue forbes global 2000 list of fortune 500 computer software and information companies references edit fortune 500 uspages.com . edgar smith 69 dies ; retired time executive . new york times . new york times . retrieved 1 march 2016 . 1955 full list . fortune 500 . fortune 500 . retrieved 1 march 2016 . williams sean . fortune 100 everything you ve ever wanted to know about this popular annual ranking . the motley fool . the motley fool . retrieved 1 march 2016 . groves martha 26 april 1995 . service now counts with fortune 500 . los angeles times . retrieved 26 april 2014 . external links edit permanent link full list of fortune 500 companies 1955 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 v t e fortune magazine managing editors parker lloyd smith ralph ingersoll eric hodgins russell davenport richardson wood acting ralph d. paine jr. hedley donovan duncan norton taylor louis banks robert lubar william s. rukeyser marshall loeb walter keichel iii john huey richard kirkland eric pooley andrew serwer alan murray editorial staff geoffrey colvin john curran nina easton andrew nusca clara shih allan sloan lists fortune 500 global 500 india 500 global 2000 40 under 40 100 best companies to work for most powerful women world s most admired companies the unicorn list businessperson of the year retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title fortune 500 & oldid 724024608 categories lists of companies by revenuefortune magazine top listsannual magazine issues navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages e tinaespa ol fran ais bahasa indonesiaitaliano magyarbahasa melayunederlands polskirom n scotssloven inasuomi t rk e ti ng vi t emait ka edit links this page was last modified on 6 june 2016 at 17 55 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view