Charts and Data
Our Great Department Stores 47 Years Ago
At 7 PM Central Time on Tuesday August 25 and Wednesday August 26 I am offering a two-part Zoom course in Entrepreneurial Thinking.Each session will last 90 minutes to allow plentiful discussion and Q&A.Topics wil include:How entrepreneurs think differently and...
The Rise and Consolidation of Industries: Airlines
Most observers of the industrial structure of the United States have noted the consolidation of industries, with one giant buying another. Many industries begin an early industry phase of new entrants, with many competitors, followed by a shakeout or a gradual...
Which US Companies Have Created the Most Jobs?
This week, our annual update of the companies which employed the most people last year, on our chart which shows the changes since 1994. Two companies dominate the list to a degree that was not happening before this chart started in 1994. The newcomer is...
Which US Companies Made the Most Profit in 2025?
This week, our annual update of the companies which made the most money last year, on our chart which shows the changes since 1994. This chart is much more volatile than our charts on top revenue and top market capitalization companies. The Big Tech companies here are...
Most Valuable American Companies over 31 Years: 1995-2026
In this year’s annual update of our chart of the most valuable companies, see the absolute dominance of Big Tech at the top, a repeat of last year. For more comments and historical perspective, see last year’s article. Watch on Youtube here:...
Largest American Companies 1994-2025
Audio Version of this Post can be found here Errata: In the audio file and transcript, I said JPMorgan had 40 billion dollars in assets, but they have 4 trillion! As someone who has been studying this stuff for over 60 years, I still have trouble thinking in...
Americans Heading to Mid-sized Cities in the 21st Century
Three years ago, we did a study of the 21st century growth of American metropolitan and micropolitan areas by size of the metro and by region of the US. The growth in medium sized metros, which include all the suburbs of a city, has continued since then. ...
Big Brands at the Grocery Store a Century Ago 1925
Today we take a stroll through a grocery or drug store in 1925, to see which brands and companies were strongest a century ago. Some companies and brands lasted through today, many did not! What were great-great-great grandpa and grandma’s favorite products,...
A Century of Automobile Industry History in Charts
Please read the note at the end of this post about our use of AI to generate the visuals and information in the post. AI is getting better but it is not perfect. We made every effort to ensure that these graphics and data tell the correct overall story...
Evolution: Hotel and Restaurant Companies Fifty Years Ago
Originally published on Jan 23, 2020. Since this article was published, we have written up the history of the Marriott company and founder, and the most interesting story of Best Western, which is a non-profit co-op of sorts. Few industries are more fascinating than...
Giant Companies Rarely Survive
Originally published on Apr 1, 2021. A careful study of this week’s list will show you the huge American industries which once dominated stock markets, employment, and community life, but which are not as important in the age of Amazon and Google. Our readers know we...
Superwealth: A Historical Perspective
Originally published May 6, 2021 Few business subjects fascinate people as much as the very wealthy. Our obsession with celebrity goes back centuries but seems to have accelerated in recent decades. Forbes produced its first list of the richest Americans...
The World’s Largest Companies in 2024 … and in the Past
Five years ago, we took a look at the biggest companies in the world. Today we update that look with a few tables, based on the data provided in the annual Fortune magazine Global 500 lists. You can see the shift from a US-centered (and to some degree European)...
The Largest American Corporate Employers 1994-2024
Today we publish the last of our series of four annual animated charts on the top American public companies, focused on the largest employers. This list may seem to change more gradually than our prior lists based on revenues, stock market valuations, and...
Highest Profit American Companies: 1994-2024
In our last article, we presented a history and chart on the most valuable companies in America over the past three decades. In this issue, we take a look at another interesting measure, the twenty American companies that made the highest annual dollar profits...
Most Valuable American Companies over 30 Years: 1995-2025
In our last article, we presented a history and chart on the largest companies in America over the past three decades. In this issue, we take a look at another interesting measure, the twenty most valuable American companies over the same time span, based on the...
Largest American Companies over 30 Years: 1994-2024
In the paragraphs below, we take a visual tour of the evolution of the largest American companies over the past thirty years. We’ve posted updates of our annual charts of America’s biggest companies from the recently published Fortune 500. The first chart shows the...
Most Valuable American Companies 1995-2024
Here we continue with our series of annual updates on America’s biggest companies from the recently published Fortune 500. This chart shows the 20 US public companies with the largest market capitalizations from 1995 through 2024. You can pause and move to...
Largest American Employers 1994-2023
Here we continue with our series of annual updates on America’s biggest companies. This chart shows the 20 biggest employers among US public companies from 1994 through 2023. You can pause and move to any year between 1994 and 2023. (There is also a...
Highest Profit US Companies 1994-2023
Here we continue with our series of annual updates on America’s biggest companies. This chart shows the 20 highest profit US public companies from 1994 through 2023. You can pause and move to any year between 1994 and 2023. (There is also a video...
Largest US Companies 1994-2023
We’re delighted to present our annual update of our charts on the largest American companies, ranked by revenue, reflecting full year results for 2023. Here are two charts which you can pause and move to any year between 1994 and 2023. One chart is the top...
America’s Largest Employers 1994-2022
Today we present our annual update of the twenty biggest employers among US public companies over the last 28 years. You can see the chart above. Enjoy and share! Gary Hoover Executive Director American Business History Center
America’s Most Valuable Companies 1995-2023
An updated 2024 version of this chart can be seen here. Today we present our annual update of the market capitalizations of the twenty most valuable US public companies over the last 28 years. You can see the chart below, which you can control, or a video here....
Highest Profit US Companies 1994-2022
Here we present our annual update to our animated chart of the highest profit American companies, now extended to include results for 2022. You can pause them and move them to any year to see the lists of the top 20. We find studying them over and over very...
Largest US Companies 1994-2022
In this, our 161st newsletter, we present our annual update to our animated chart of the largest companies, now extended to include results for 2022. The picture above shows the leading companies when Fortune first did a list of all US companies for 1994 (previously...
21st Century Growth of American Cities
In our most recent newsletter, we reviewed changes in population among American cities (metropolitan areas) since 2019, a short but important period of change. In this issue, we take a look at the longer-term trends; how our cities have shifted over the 22 years from...
The Rise and Fall of American Cities During Covid
The Census Bureau recently released 2022 estimated populations of American Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs – cities with all their suburbs). We were curious to understand what places in the nation were growing and which ones were shrinking since the start of...
Television Giants: From I Love Lucy to Streaming
In our last newsletter, we took a look at the backgrounds of four media industry leaders, Shari Redstone of Paramount Global, Lachlan Murdoch of Fox, Brian Roberts of Comcast, and Bob Iger of Disney. Our exploration of the media and entertainment industries and...
America’s Largest Hotels through Time
The world couldn’t function without the lodging industry. Wayside inns for the traveler have been with us for centuries. The American West was built on stagecoach stops and hotels near the train depot. Today, most Americans have experienced hotels and motels,...
Largest Employers 1994-2021
This week we present our animated chart of the largest employers in America among our big, public companies. In the last three weeks, we have published similar charts based on revenues, on profits, and on market capitalization, all of which can be found by clicking...
Most Valuable U.S. Companies 1995 Through 2022
An updated 2023 version of this chart can be seen here. Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies, first by size (revenues), then by profits, market capitalizations, and number of employees. The new Fortune...
Highest Profit US Companies 1994 Through 2021
An updated 2023 version of this chart can be seen here. (Our original post listed this as the 25 highest profit companies but should have said 20 highest profit companies.) Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies,...
2022 UPDATED Largest Companies Charts
Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies, first by size (revenues), then by profits, market capitalizations, and number of employees. The new Fortune magazine “Fortune 500” list of the biggest public companies...
Americans Leaving Older Cities for Greener Pastures
In the twelve months ended on July 1, 2021, Dallas-Fort Worth and their suburbs attracted almost 75,000 people from around America, while the greater San Francisco Bay area witnessed more than 170,000 folks running to other parts of the country. These population...
U.S. States Population Animated Chart 1790-2020
This week we present another of our popular animated charts. In this one, we show the populations of the states of the United States from the Census, every ten years from 1790 through 2020. The list is long, including all fifty ultimate states. The data...
Gas Station Wars: Rockefeller to Dinosaurs to Tigers in Tanks
In the twentieth century, no industry created more giant American companies than the petroleum industry. In 1917, big oil represented six of the fifty largest American companies. By 1955, eleven oil companies made the top fifty industrial firms in Fortune...
America’s Largest Airlines 1950-2019 in Two Animated Charts
The United States airline system, one of the technological and business wonders of the twentieth century, evolved in the 1920s and 1930s. With early subsidies from the Post Office for carrying mail, airplanes began connecting US cities. With successive air...
Americans Vote with Their Feet
Last week, the Census Bureau published their annual estimates of population, as of July 1, 2020. Population trends underly all economic activity, so we study that data as soon as it is released. The fastest growing and shrinking cities and metropolitan areas...
Bye Bye, New York
One of the most significant shifts in American business over the last several decades has been the shrinking number of big corporations headquartered in New York City. At first, some moved “upstate” to the New York suburbs and to Connecticut. But more...
Retailing Trends 1992 through 2020
The $6.3 trillion US retailing industry has evolved continuously since the end of the Civil War, when the first chain grocery stores and first department stores began to develop. This chart, based on data from the US Census, shows how the different types of...
The Drugstore Shelf and the Stewardship of Brands
“Big pharma” and “biotech” are in the news these days. Politicians attack the industry and the price of drugs. At the same time, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and others hurry along to develop a COVID vaccine. These companies have been among the...
The Biggest Companies in the World
Fifty-seven years ago, meatpacking giant Swift was the 15th largest public company in the world. Today that 15th spot is held by American health insurer UnitedHealth. Apple sits in the 12th position formerly held by Texaco, now part of Chevron. ...
What Became of My Bank?
No industry has seen more name changes and mergers and acquisitions than America’s banking industry. Many people don’t realize that BankAmerica, Chase Manhattan, JP Morgan, and Wells Fargo – all among the ten largest banks thirty years ago – were each absorbed...
Most Valuable Companies: The Last 25 Years
An updated 2024 version of this chart can be seen here. On Market Capitalization as a Measure of Size or Success Your history reporter has been studying big business for fifty-seven years (I started subscribing to Fortune magazine in 1963, when I was twelve years...
America’s Highest Profit Companies 1994-2019
An updated 2022 version of this chart can be seen here. This week we present another of our animated charts based on Fortune magazine’s annual lists of the 500 largest US public companies (based on revenues). This time, our focus is on the companies which made...
Big Companies Hiring (and Laying Off) Employees
An updated 2022 version of this chart can be seen here. This week we present another of our animated charts based on Fortune magazine’s annual lists of the 500 largest US public companies (based on revenues). This time, our focus is on the largest employers...
Dinosaur Age: Charting Giant Companies 66 Years Ago
“Last week we brought you an unprecedented animated chart of the Fortune 500 list since 1994. Here we go back another 40 years, when steel companies and meatpackers were still giants. Taken together, you can learn a lot from 65 years of history.” Last...
25 Years of the Fortune 500 Animated Chart
An updated 2022 version of this chart can be seen here. The saga of American business in one chart! The fall of Enron, the rise of Apple and Amazon, the enduring legacy of John Rockefeller in Exxon and Chevron – see the years fly by! Below the two charts...
1979 Department Store Database
Click here to download the excel file.
Our Friend the Grocery Store: 40 Years of Change
In these difficult times, few companies are doing more for us than our food retailers. From aggressive steps by the largest food retailer in the world, Walmart, to advance planning by regional firms such as HEB in Texas, the nation’s grocers are continuing to...
The Data-Driven Visionary
In 1941, Fred Lazarus, Jr., had some time to kill in Houston. He had come to visit his son Ralph who was serving in the Army at nearby Ellington Field. Twelve years earlier, Lazarus and his family had united their family-owned Lazarus department...
Which Cities Are Americans Fleeing?
Click here to see the detailed chart or watch it here on youtube. Two weeks ago, we presented an animated chart showing the most popular American cities – the metropolitan areas which received the most domestic migrants in each year from 2010 through...
Where Americans are Leaving
Two weeks ago, we presented an animated chart showing the most popular American cities – the metropolitan areas which received the most domestic migrants in each year from 2010 through 2018. This week, we created an animated chart showing “the...
Most Popular Metro Areas to Move To 2010 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbOMtlruBDE
What are the Most Popular American Cities to Move To?
This week we present another of our animated charts. This one looks at which cities Americans have been moving to, from 2010 through 2018. Population growth is a key factor in business and where business takes place. Entrepreneurs and innovators often...
Where Americans are Moving
American Boomtowns and Slowdowns
Dear Friends of History, Here at the American Business History Center, we usually focus on the long-term view, going back decades. But today, for a change of pace, we take a look at very recent history….the 2010’s. Here is one of our “bar race charts” created using...
Metro Areas with Largest Population Increase 2010-2018
24 years of Big Company Change
American Spending Patterns 1929 to 2018
This week, we present more of our animated “bar race charts” made with Flourish.studio, in which you can see how change takes place over time. We have produced two versions, one for close study that takes five minutes and a very fast one that you can watch in...
The Rise and Fall of American Cities
History lovers, Today we present something a little different….an animated chart showing the rise and fall of American cities. If you play (or replay) the graphic linked here, you will see the rise and fall of the thirty most populous metropolitan areas in the...
70 Years of American Car History in Under a Minute (1896-1966)
Few industries have had more impact on American society (and workers) than the auto industry. The famous “Big Three” of General Motors (GM), Ford, and Chrysler evolved from hundreds of small carmakers, a pattern seen in many industries to this day. The...
Market Share Percent of Major Auto Companies
Makes of American Cars Ranked by Annual Production
Another very cool way of looking at the data, showing the ups and downs of each car make, see this animated chart, making sure and try both the rankings and the production number style – they appear very differently:
Annual US Auto Production by Make 1896-1966
Few industries have had more impact on American society (and workers) than the auto industry. The famous “Big Three” of General Motors (GM), Ford, and Chrysler evolved from hundreds of small carmakers, a pattern seen in many industries to this day. The...
The First Fortune 500 – 1954 Data
The first Fortune 500 - 1954 Data set Source: Fortune Magazine 1954 The First Fortune 500 1954 Data (XLSX)
US Auto Industry Big 3 Sales & Profits 1909-37
Here is data on the rise of the Big 3 US automakers: Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. Source: Report on the Motor Vehicle Industry, Federal Trade Commission, 1939 US Auto Industry Big 3 Sales & Profits 1909-37(XLSX)
US Auto Production by Make 1896-1966
Here are estimates of the largest car makers in the early years of the industry, 1896-1966. Source: The American Car since 1775, 1971, by the Editors of Automobile Quarterly US Auto Production by Make 1896-1966 (XLSX)
New York Newspaper Wars Circulation History 1894-2015
New York City once had many newspapers, and they had serious circulation wars. Here is some circulation data, from 1894, 1928, 1962, and 2015. Source: Various Newspaper Directories New York Newspaper Wars Circulation History 1894-2015 (XLSX)
1955 Fortune 500 companies no longer independent
Here is our first effort to list the companies that were on the Fortune 500 list in 1955 that no longer exist as independent companies. We have more work to do here, going down the entire list. But it should remind us of all the fallen giants! Source:...
Market Capitalization Large US Companies 1964
Largest US companies and their Market Capitalizations in 1964. Market Capitalization Large US Companies 1964 (XLSX)
Largest US Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Companies 1956
An interesting list of cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies in 1956, with sales and profit data. Source: Various Financial Reference Books Largest US Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Companies 1956 (XLSX)
Most Powerful Brands in US 1923
Here is an interesting list of the most-recognized brand names in America in 1923. Source: The Leadership of Advertised Brands, by Hotchkiss and Franken, 1923 Most Powerful Brands in US 1923 (XLSX)
Leading US National Advertisers 1979
Here is a list of the companies which spent the most on advertising campaigns in 1979. Source: Advertising Age Yearbook 1981 Leading US National Advertisers 1979 (XLSX)
Largest American discount store chains 1968
Here is a list of the largest US discount store chains in 1968. Note that K Mart, Target, and Walmart were all founded in 1962, six years earlier. However, Walmart was not nearly big enough to make this list! Source: Discount Merchandiser Magazine, June 1969...
Largest US food companies 1954 based on Fortune 500 List
This spreadsheet lists the largest publicly-held US food manufacturers in 1954, and includes tabulations by industry segment (meatpacking, bakeries, canners, etc.). Source: 1955 Fortune Magazine with list of the 500 largest US publicly-held companies in 1954 Largest...
1969 largest hotel chains
Here is a list of the largest US-based hotel chains in 1969, including the number of hotels and motels (“units”). Source: Institutions Magazine 400 1969 list. 1969 largest hotel chains (XLSX)
Big three electrical manufacturers historical data
This sheet contains sales and profit data on Allis-Chalmers, General Electric, and Westinghouse in 1910, 1928, and 1958. Source: Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Poor's Manuals Big three electrical manufacturers historical data (XLSX)
Retail Industry History Data
Here are the data slides from our video on the history of this industry. Retail History Data (PDF)
Magazine and Broadcasting Industry History Data
Here are the data slides from our video on the history of this industry. Magazine and Broadcasting History Data (PDF)
Movie Industry History Data
Here are the data slides from our video on the history of this industry. Movie Industry History Data (PDF)
Computer Industry History Data
Here are the data slides from our video on the history of this industry. Computer Industry History Data (PDF)
Automobile Industry History Data
Here are the data slides from our video on the history of this industry. Automobile Industry History Data (PDF)
Airline Industry History Data
Here are the data slides from our video on the history of this industry. Airline Industry History Data (PDF)
Top Selling Headache Remedies and Beer Brands Mid-1960s
Here are two interesting lists, on headache remedies and beer, in the mid-1960s. Source: Television Advertising Representatives Brand Comparisons 1965 Top Selling Headache Remedy Brands in Selected US Cities 1965 (XLSX) Top Selling Beer Brands in Selected US Cities...
Largest Public Consumer Nondurable Products Makers 1954 and 2016
Here are two spreadsheets, listing extensive data on the largest US publicly-held makers of “non-durable consumer products” – food, beverage, soap, etc. – in 1954 and 2016. Source: Fortune Magazine annual lists of the 500 largest US companies (excluding privately-held...
Top Automobile Makes Mentioned in a 1923 Survey
A list of the best-known US automobile brands in 1923. Source: The Leadership of Advertised Brands, by Hotchkiss and Franken, 1923 Top Automobile Makes Mentioned in a 1923 Survey (XLSX)
Largest Companies 1917 and 1929
Here are lists of selected large American companies in 1917 and 1929. The notes on the spreadsheet tabs are important to read. Source: Forbes Magazine 50th Anniversary Issue, 9/15/1967 Largest Companies 1917 and 1929 (XLSX) In our continuing research, we...
Largest American Retailers 1929-2015
This spreadsheet contains extensive data on the largest US publicly-held retailers in 1929, 1955, 1985, and 2015. Source: Compiled by Gary Hoover from Fortune magazine lists of the biggest retailers in 1955, 1985, and 2015, and from the 1930 Moody’s Industrial Manual....
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