Of the 2,000 companies in the Forbes Global 2000 ranking, the United States had by far the highest number of companies at 610, followed by China at more than 300 companies, and Japan at over 190 companies.

The dataset is an outcome of numerous comments in my previous dataset. Now with unified data for the whole scope of years (units - millions of $ and industries). The original data from Forbes was quite a mess so it required a patient clearing. The main problem was that the data is not unified. We could observe the same company under different industry type over different years. The data is now as clean as possible with a little bit of interferrence. I hope you find a good use of the data provided :)

Below you can find the python code to get all the available data for Forbes Global 2000. There are some other scripts available on web but I couldn't find any reliable enough. This one is still not 100% perfect, sometimes it requires to amend two or three rows in the csv file but I'm sure you will be happy with the results: https://data.world/aroissues/forbes-global-2000-data-scraping

Also added recently raw .csv dataset for the time period available with the Forbes Global API, please check: https://data.world/aroissues/forbes-global-2000-raw-csv-data

If you appreciate my contribution and if the data collected here was useful, feel free to buy me a coffee :) https://www.buymeacoffee.com/aroissues

With the growth of the Chinese economy, an increasing number of Chinese companies are appearing on the Forbes Global 2000 list. Tencent Holdings was the Chinese company with the largest market value. Its market value amounted to around 472.33 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.

Chinese companies on Forbes Global 2000

China had the second highest number of companies on this list, trailing behind the United States. Among the first ten public companies on the Global 2000 ranking, three were companies headquartered in China. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) ranked as first Chinese enterprise on Forbes Global 2000 ranking. The leading four Chinese companies on the 2024 ranking are all from the financial sector.

The rise of China's tech-giants

Besides companies from the financial sector and energy sector, China's biggest internet companies Tencent and Alibaba also had good rankings. Both companies have grown significantly over the past years due to the rapid development of the internet business sector and the huge market in China. However, they have fallen back in the global ranking recently due to Beijing's tightened control of the tech sector. Both companies are investing a lot in the application of artificial intelligence to improve their working efficiency and clients’ experience.

Forbes Global 2000 2016

Reference ListForbes (2017). The Worlds Biggest Companies. Accessed on 17/5/2018. URL: https://www.forbes.com/global2000/list/#tab:overall ILAB and DOL (2016). List of Goods Produced by Child Labour. Accessed on 17/5/2018. URL: https://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods/Nike (2018). About Nike. Accessed on 17/5/2018. URL: https://about.nike.com/ Nike (2018). Sustainability Map. Accessed on 17/5/2018. URL: http://manufacturingmap.nikeinc.com/ Werner International (2014). Wages and Working Hours in the Textiles, Clothing, Leather and Footwear Industries. Accessed on 17/5/2018. URL: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_dialogue/@sector/documents/publication/wcms_300463.pdf

From 2000 to 2019, the United States had more Fortune 500 companies than any other country. In 2020, the U.S. was surpassed by China, where 124 companies were reported, compared to 121 U.S. companies. This is an impressive increase, as there were only 10 Fortune 500 companies in China in 2000. In 2023, the number of top world companies ranked by revenue grew by six in China, while in the U.S. there were 12 more companies than in 2022.

Reference ListForbes (2017). The Worlds Biggest Companies. Accessed on 17/5/2018. URL: https://www.forbes.com/global2000/list/#tab:overall ILAB and DOL (2016). List of Goods Produced by Child Labour. Accessed on 17/5/2018. URL: https://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods/Nike (2018). About Nike. Accessed on 17/5/2018. URL: https://about.nike.com/ Nike (2018). Sustainability Map. Accessed on 17/5/2018. URL: http://manufacturingmap.nikeinc.com/ Werner International (2014). Wages and Working Hours in the Textiles, Clothing, Leather and Footwear Industries. Accessed on 17/5/2018. URL: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_dialogue/@sector/documents/publication/wcms_300463.pdf

McDonald’s, the renowned global quick service restaurant chain, has maintained annual growth in its restaurant count for almost two decades, even during the years of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In 2023, the company operated and franchised approximately 41.8 thousand restaurants globally, marking a rise from the previous year’s count of around 40.2 thousand establishments. What country has the most McDonald's restaurants? McDonald’s has asserted its global dominance through the widespread expansion of its chains across the world. In 2022, France was the European region with the highest number of McDonald's restaurants, closely followed by Germany. Meanwhile, Brazil took first spot in the Latin American and the Caribbean region, and China emerged as the country with the most McDonald's restaurants in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. That being said, the country with the most McDonald's restaurants in the world was, unsurprisingly, its home nation of the United States. Is McDonald’s the leading quick service restaurant chain globally? In 2023, coffee shop chain Starbucks claimed the top spot on the Forbes "Global 2000" list of the leading global food and beverage companies by sales. While it did not place in the top three in the ranking, the McDonald’s Corporation placed fourth, also generating significant sales worldwide. However, McDonald’s was named the most valuable quick service restaurant brand of 2022, with an estimated brand value of 196.5 billion U.S. dollars worldwide.

Dieter Schwarz was ranked as the wealthiest people in Germany in 2024, according to Forbes, with assets amounting to 46.4 billion U.S. dollars. The 25 wealthiest people in Germany all had capital of at least five billion dollars. Who are the richest people in Germany? Karl Albrecht Jr. is the owner of the popular discount grocery store chain Aldi Süd. As of 2022, there were almost 2,000 Aldi Süd stores in Germany, this of course does not include all the stores in other countries such as Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Australia, just to name a few. Dieter Schwarz is the owner of the Schwarz Gruppe, which owns both the supermarket chains Kaufland and Lidl. In 2022, the Schwarz Gruppe had a revenue of around 52.5 million euros. German salaries Germany, currently, has the highest GDP in Europe, however, this does not mean that everyone in Germany is a billionaire. The average salary is, in fact, around 45,600 euros. Although the trend is that German salaries have been on the rise since 2000, there has been a dip since 2019. This is probably due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent inflation.

With a brand value of approximately 37 billion U.S. dollars, Nike was unequivocally the most valuable sports business brand in the world in 2019. The brand value of ESPN amounted to over 13 billion U.S. dollars that same year. Nike Based in Oregon, United States, Nike is a multinational company that produces footwear, apparel, and equipment, among other (sports) products. The corporation’s yearly revenue has grown with each consecutive year since 2010, reaching almost 40 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. That year, the company employed over 75 thousand people, an increase of over three and a half thousand employees compared to 2018. Adidas Adidas, which in 2019 had a global sports business brand value in excess of 11 billion U.S. dollars, is one of Nike’s top competitors. Over the course of the past two decades, the company’s global net sales have increased significantly: from just under six billion euros in 2000 to almost 24 billion in 2019. Within that time, the number of people employed by the Adidas Group worldwide has also grown substantially, namely by tens of thousands of employees.

As of February 2, 2023, Gautam Adani's net worth stood at 43.3 billion U.S. dollars, a staggeringly low figure as compared to 90 billion U.S. dollars in April 2022. Gautam Adani's net worth took a serious blow after the publication of the Hindenburg report on January 24, 2023, alleging accounting fraud, stock manipulation, and other charges.

Who is Gautam Adani?

A native of Gujarat, he is the founder and chairman of the Adani Group. He set up his commodity trading business in 1988 and entered the business world. His diversified business portfolio continued to grow through quick acquisitions and collaborations. Seven of the group’s companies are listed on the Indian stock exchanges. He is also India’s biggest airport operator and also controls Mundra Port. In 2022, Forbes listed him as the third richest man in the world.

Fall after Hindenburg Report 

His net worth suffered a serious blow post the publication of Hindenburg Research. The report raised questions over Adani Group’s high debt levels and accused it of using shell companies and stock manipulation. India’s Supreme Court has recently set up a panel to investigate the allegations that Adani denies. The independent panel will investigate regulatory failures. Adani has welcomed the Supreme court order.