Global 500
The Global 500 shrank a little over the past year. After reaching a record high of $33.3 trillion in the 2020 edition, total revenue for the world’s biggest companies fell 4.8% to $31.7 trillion this year. It was the first decline in half a decade. The culprit, of course, was COVID-19, which slammed huge swaths of the global economy as countries went into lockdown. Cumulative sales in both the energy and automotive sectors, for example, fell by more than 10%. And all six of the airlines that appeared in last year’s ranking failed to make the cut this year. Despite the setbacks, the heft of the Global 500 remains formidable: The combined sales of the companies on the list are equal to more than one-third of global GDP.
Each year a whole host of factors—the global economy, trade policies, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate upheaval among them—push and pull at the Global 500 rankings. To help you quickly see how each country is represented on the list, we put the Global 500 on a world map. Now you can see each company's location, revenue and profit at a glance. We also invite you to take a look at how each Global 500 company has moved around in the ranks over the past two decades.
