There are different ways to measure the biggest companies. These are three methods:
- Market capitalisation – using FTSE all share index
- Revenue/sales
- Largest number of employees
Top 10 UK firms by market capitlisation
| Rank | Name | Mkt cap (£m) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Dutch Shell | 178,414.2 |
| 2 | HSBC Holdings | 145,979.6 |
| 3 | British American Tobacco | 106,613.6 |
| 4 | BP | 90,115.0 |
| 5 | GlaxoSmithKline | 71,401.1 |
| 6 | Diageo | 62,825.6 |
| 7 | AstraZeneca | 60,421.7 |
| 8 | Vodafone Group | 57,513.0 |
| 9 | Unilever | 55,150.3 |
| 10 | Glencore | 49,820.2 |
Sept, 2017
Top 10 UK firms by Revenue
| Company | Industry | Revenue US$ |
| 1. Royal Dutch Shell | Oil and gas | 484,489 |
| 2. BP | Oil and gas | 386,463 |
| 3. Glencore Xstrata | Conglomerate | 220,030 |
| 4. HSBC | Banking | 110,141 |
| 5. Tesco | Retail/supermarket | 103,839 |
| 6. Vodafone | Telecommunications | 74.051 |
| 7. Barclays | Banking/finance | 68,949 |
| 8. Lloyds Banking group | Banking/finance | 67,048 |
| 9. Unilever | Consumer goods | 64,610 |
| 10. The Royal Bank of Scotland | Banking/finance | 62,798 |
- 11. Aviva – Insurance
- 12. Rio Tinto Group – Mining
- 13. Prudential – Financial services
- 14. SSE – electric utility
- 15. GlaxoSmithKline – Pharmaceuticals
- 16. Centrica – Electric utility
- 17. Sainsbury’s – Retail
- 18. AstraZeneca – Pharmaceuticals
- 19. BT Group – telecommunications
- 20. Anglo American Mining
Top 10 British Employers
| Employer | est. | Sector | Employees | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. NHS (England) | 1945 | Health | 1,400,000 | |
| 2. NHS Scotland | 1948 | Health | 160,000 | |
| 3. British Army | 1660 | Military | 125,430 | |
| 4. Department of Work and Pensions | 2001 | Welfare | 111,000 | |
| 5. HM Revenue & Customs | 2005 | Taxation | 76,890 | |
| 6. NHS Wales | 1946 | Healthcare | 72,000 | |
| 7. Ministry of Justice | 2007 | Law | 68,670 | |
| 8. Ministry of Defence | 1940 | Military | 65,000 | |
| 9. Metropolitan Police Service | 1829 | Police | 50,000 (approx.) | |
| 10. Royal Air Force | 1918 | Military | 37,200 | |
| 11. Network Rail | 2002 | Transport | 34,000 | |
| 12. Tata Steel | 2017 | Steel Industry | 26,000 | |
| 13. BBC | 1927 | Media | 23,000 | |
| 14. Home Office | 1782 | Security, immigration, etc. | 25,850 | |
| 15. Scottish Government | 1999 | Devolved government | 17,000 | |
| 16. Department for Transport | 2002 | Transport | 17,640 | |
| 17. Welsh Government | 1999 | Devolved government | 5,682 | |
| 18. Parliament of the United Kingdom | 1707 | Political representation | 1,475 | |
Largest employers by PLC’s Royal Mail, G4S, Tesco and Compass Group
For more information see also:
Notes
Royal Dutch Shell is part UK, part Dutch. It ranks 7th in the global list of largest companies by revenue. The world’s largest by revenue is Walmart.
Source:
- Top 10 by Market Capitalisation – FTSE all share – Stock challenge
- Top 10 companies by revenue CNN Fortune Global 500
- Largest employers at Wikipedia
- Forbes 500 largest firms
