Fortune Magazine recently released its 2016 Fortune 500 rankings. The top five U.S. companies, according to 2015 revenues, were Wal-Mart Stores ($482.1 billion), Exxon Mobil ($246.2 billion), Apple ($233.7 billion), Berkshire Hathaway ($210.8 billion), and McKesson ($181.2 billion). Apple replaced petroleum giant Chevron which dropped to 14th place. These five reported over $2.1 trillion in revenue for 2015 and $151.3 billion in profits.

Ten Missouri-based companies were included in this year’s Fortune 500 list. Express Scripts (ranked 22nd) was unchanged from last year with revenues of $101.7 billion. Company revenues increased nearly $2.0 billion over last year. Other companies that had higher rankings from the previous year were Centene, Monsanto, Reinsurance Group of America, O’Reilly Automotive, Graybar Electric, and Edward Jones Financial. Centene’s ranking increased the most moving up 62 spots from 186 to 124. Nearly all of the state’s top 10 Fortune 500 companies were based in St. Louis; O’Reilly Automotive is headquartered in Springfield, Reinsurance Group of America (RGA) is based in Chesterfield, and Graybar Electric in Clayton.

Combined, revenues for these ten companies are up by nearly $ 50.0 billion over last year; 2015 profits, however, have declined by $163.0 million. An analysis of the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages micro-data shows that these ten companies employed roughly 29,100 people in Missouri and paid wages totaling $2.4 billion.

Missouri ranked 18th in the United States with ten Fortune 500 company headquarters located in the state. Of the surrounding states, only Illinois—which ranked 4th-- had more Fortune 500 company headquarters with 36. New York had the most Fortune 500 company headquarters with 55—unchanged from last year; California and Texas each have 51 Fortune 500 headquarter companies—fewer than last year when Texas had 54 and California 53. Twelve states did not have any Fortune 500 companies. The map at the end of the brief illustrates the number of Fortune 500 companies located in each state.