(FORTUNE Magazine) – The U.S. has the most companies on the Global 500 with 157, followed by Japan at 119. Britain is disproportionately represented, surpassing the far larger German economy, mainly owing to a residual empire of subsidiary companies around the globe, stretching from onetime colonies in North America to the South Pacific. The Italian economy is underrepresented. A dozen enterprises that would likely make the list are consolidated into IRI (No. 7), the sprawling, government-owned holding company that produces everything from steel to newspapers to thousands of patronage jobs for politicians. All of Africa has only five corporations that qualify: four in South Africa and the state-owned Zambia Industrial & Mining Co. The economic recovery of Latin America after a lost decade is highlighted by the appearance of Vitro, a glassmaker that is Mexico's first non-government company to make the Global 500, and YPF, the Argentine national oil company being prepared for privatization. In booming Asia, South Korea added two more companies to its total (now 13), while the Petroleum Authority of Thailand marks that fast-growing country's first entry into the ranks.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: NO CREDIT CAPTION: THE GLOBAL 500 BY COUNTRY