Forbes Unveils Top 100 U.S. Family Businesses, Led by $713 Billion Walmart

1 articles · Updated · Forbes · May 13

100 companies made Forbes’ first ranking of America’s top family businesses, a list meant to quantify a sector the magazine called a major but often overlooked force in the U.S. economy.
25% of U.S. companies, 23% of the workforce and 23% of private-sector GDP are tied to family businesses under a mid-range academic definition cited by Forbes.
67 of the ranked companies are privately held and 33 are public; Cargill is the largest private member at $154 billion in revenue, while Walmart is the biggest public one with $713 billion in sales.
31 states are represented on the list, spanning long-lived firms such as 174-year-old Levi Strauss to younger entrant Sonic Automotive, founded in 1997.
Forbes said it built the ranking with outside academic input and ownership thresholds, generally excluding companies with living founders unless later generations already control leadership.

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