The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortunemagazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporationsas ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune toexclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includespublicly and privately-held companies for which revenues are publiclyavailable. The first Fortune 500 list was published in 1955.
Although the Fortune 500 list is the most familiar one, similar grossrevenue lists of the top firms range from the highest ranking Fortune 100including the top one hundred to the broader ranking Fortune 1000 thatincludes the top thousand firms. While the membership on the smallerlists is somewhat stable, the ranking on the lists may change over time,depending upon revenues and often, because of mergers among firmsalready listed.
The original Fortune 500 was restricted to companies whose revenueswere derived from manufacturing, mining, or energy exploration. Atthe same time, Fortune published companion “Fortune 50” lists of the 50largest commercial banks, utilities, life insurance companies, retailers andtransportation companies. These have been consolidated into one single list,so the Fortune 500 as it exists today includes companies that in previousyears would have been on one of the “Fortune 50” list.
财富500 强是《财富》杂志每年汇编出版美国前500 家公司的排名。这些公司中既有私营企业也有上市公司，其排名依据为经《财富》
调整扣除代征消费税后的总营业收入。榜单包含所有可通过公共渠道获得营业收入数据的私营公司和上市公司。第一份财富500 强榜单公布于1955 年。
其实财富500 强榜单只是所有榜单中读者最熟悉的一个，类似的总营业收入排名还有财富100 强排名和覆盖面更大的财富1000 强排名，两者分别列出了总营业收入最高的100 家公司和1000 家公司。虽然覆盖面较小的榜单中包含的公司成员相对稳定，但是榜单中的公司排名也会时常变化，这通常源于上榜公司之间的并购所带来的营业收入的变化。
财富500 强最初只包括那些营业收入来自制造业、工矿业和能源开发行业的企业。同时，《财富》还刊登“财富50 强”，包括最大的商业银行、公共事业公司、寿险公司、零售公司和运输公司。现在两个榜单已经合二为一，所以今天财富500 强中的某些公司也曾在多年前出现在“财富50 强”上。
