What is a Fortune 1000 company? (2024)

A Fortune 1000 company is an organization that has made Fortune magazine's annual list of the 1000 largest American companies. Obtaining a ranking on the Fortune 1000 list garners respect within the business world, and is a way to point to a specific company's success and accomplishments both within their industry and more broadly.

Fortune magazine rates companies in contention for the list by:

• Total revenue generated from core operations

• Total revenue generated from discontinued operations

• Total revenue generated by consolidated subsidiaries

The Fortune 1000 list is made up of public companies; private companies are not included, as private organizations tend to withhold financial earners from the public at large. Other organizations that are excluded from the list include those that do not report full financial statements for at least three quarters of the appropriate financial year.

The Fortune 500 list is a much more well-known and respected list put out by Fortune magazine. Its status overshadows the Fortune 1000 list because it is more exclusive (listing 500 companies versus 1000), and also due to the constant fluctuation and changes of lower-level companies on the Fortune 1000 list.