In Fortune China’s 2025 ranking of Fortune Global 500 companies by employee count, Walmart ranks first with 2,100,000 employees. Amazon.com is second with 1,556,000, followed by State Grid with 1,354,310. These are published company figures, not a synchronized census of every employer worldwide.
Which company has the most employees in the world?
Walmart leads Fortune China’s July 29, 2025 ranking of the Fortune Global 500 companies with the most employees. The ranking is limited to companies in that list; it does not cover every business, government department, or public institution. Its country labels identify each company’s associated country, not the countries where its employees work.
The 10 largest companies by number of employees
The figures below are reported in Fortune China’s 2025 employee ranking. Its table also displays each company’s separate Global 500 rank; the order here is the employee-count ranking, not that other rank.
| Employee rank | Company | Employees reported | Country label in Fortune China | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walmart | 2,100,000 | United States | Retail |
| 2 | Amazon.com | 1,556,000 | United States | Online retail and logistics |
| 3 | State Grid | 1,354,310 | China | Electric utility |
| 4 | China National Petroleum | 985,155 | China | Energy |
| 5 | BYD | 968,872 | China | Manufacturing |
| 6 | Accenture | 774,303 | Ireland | Professional services |
| 7 | China Post Group | 723,227 | China | Postal services |
| 8 | Volkswagen | 646,501 | Germany | Automotive manufacturing |
| 9 | Hon Hai Precision Industry | 633,167 | China | Manufacturing |
| 10 | U.S. Postal Service | 586,700 | United States | Postal services |
Source for every headcount and country label: Fortune China’s 2025 ranking. Sector descriptions identify the companies’ broad lines of work; the ranking is not a measure of revenue, influence, job quality, or where employees are based.
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How to interpret the employee counts
The figures do not share one measurement date
Fortune China publishes the counts together, but they are not independently verified, synchronized headcounts measured on the same date. Companies may report on different dates and use different employment categories, so small differences between sources do not necessarily mean one figure is wrong.
Company filings can report a different number
Walmart’s 2025 annual report says the company had approximately 2.1 million associates worldwide: approximately 1.6 million in the United States and 0.5 million internationally (Walmart annual reports). That rounds to Fortune China’s 2,100,000.
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Amazon’s 2025 Form 10-K reports approximately 1,576,000 full-time and part-time employees as of December 31, 2025, a different figure from the 1,556,000 in Fortune China’s ranking. Amazon also says independent contractors and temporary personnel supplement its workforce. The filing’s date and stated categories make it a useful issuer cross-check, but it should not be substituted for the ranking’s number when describing that table (Amazon 2025 Form 10-K).
Employment definitions affect comparisons
Not all companies describe their workforce in the same way. For example, Microsoft’s 2025 annual report says it employed approximately 228,000 people on a full-time basis as of June 30, 2025 (Microsoft 2025 annual report). Reporting dates and fiscal calendars differ, and disclosures may distinguish full-time employees from other types of workers. The ten-company table should therefore be read as a publisher’s compilation, not a perfectly standardized count.
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Why a list of the biggest employers can look different
A ranking of companies is not the same as a ranking of all employers. Governments and public institutions may employ very large workforces; a broader 2022 employer table, for example, includes defense ministries, armed forces, and the U.K. National Health Service. Including such organizations changes the scope and can change which employers lead (2022 broad employer table). Fortune China’s ranking answers the narrower question of which Fortune Global 500 companies report the most employees.
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