New American Fortune 500 Report Reveals Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurship

WASHINGTON—In an annual review of the largest and most recognizable American companies, the American Immigration Council released today a report that examines the role of immigrant entrepreneurs and their children in America’s economic success story. The report, “New American Fortune 500 in 2022: The Largest American Companies and Their Immigrant Roots,” found that 43.8%, or 219 companies, in this year’s Fortune 500 list were founded by immigrants or their children.

The report draws from Fortune Magazine’s annual ranking of the United States’ 500 largest corporations, ranked by revenue, to analyze the share of companies that were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants and these firms’ contributions to the U.S. and global economy.

As America faces the challenges of a post-pandemic global economy and grapples with the polarizing debate over immigration, this report exposes the need to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation and the essential role of immigrant entrepreneurs in our economy.

“Immigrant entrepreneurs play an indispensable role in driving our economy and in creating job growth. While immigrants represent only 13.6% of the U.S. population, it’s estimated that a quarter of America’s entrepreneurs are immigrants. This increased propensity for business creation among immigrants is crucial for the U.S economy, as research shows that nearly all net job growth in the United States is attributed to new firms and startups,” said Andrew Lim, research director at the American Immigration Council. “From household names such as Apple and Costco, as well as newcomers to the Fortune 500 list like Jackson Financial and Caesar’s Entertainment, more than two out of every five Fortune 500 companies had at least one immigrant or child-of-immigrant founder—a pattern that has remained over the years since our first New American Fortune 500 report in 2011.”

The main findings of the report include:

• A total of 219 companies in the Fortune 500 list had immigrant roots: 102 of those companies were founded by immigrants, and 117 companies were founded by the children of immigrants.
• Fortune 500 companies founded by immigrants or children of immigrants employ more than 14.8 million people worldwide.
• The over $7 trillion in revenue generated by Fortune 500 companies founded by immigrants or children of immigrants is greater than the GDP of every country in the world outside the United States, except China.
• Immigrant-founded Fortune 500 companies drive 68 industry sectors across the American economy.
• 35 U.S. states are headquarters to at least one New American Fortune 500 firm, and seven of those states have at least 10 firms.

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 For more information, contact:

 Maria Frausto at the American Immigration Council, [email protected] or 202-507-7526.