The first Fortune 500 list was published in 1955. Fortune editor Edgar P. Smith created the ranking to measure the size of major American corporations using annual revenue.
The inaugural list appeared in January 1955. Its original scope was narrower than today’s version: it focused on companies whose revenue came from manufacturing, mining, and energy exploration. Fortune published separate companion rankings for industries such as banking, utilities, insurance, retail, and transportation.
The first ranking’s leading companies included General Motors, Jersey Standard, and U.S. Steel. Their prominence reflected the industrial structure of postwar America, when manufacturing, petroleum, steel, and other heavy industries dominated the nation’s corporate economy.
Fortune changed the methodology in 1994 to include service companies. That update admitted 291 new companies, including three in the top ten, and made the list more representative of the modern U.S. economy. The ranking is still based on revenue, not profit, assets, or market value, and it should not be confused with the worldwide Fortune Global 500.