(FORTUNE Magazine) – FORTUNE'S GLOBAL

The U.S. has just two more companies on the list than Japan--151 vs. 149. But the Americans piled up five times as much in aggregate profits and boasted an average return on revenues of 4.8% against 0.7% for the Japanese. The U.S. GDP growth rate, a giddy 4.1% last year, did its bit to help. In contrast, Japan's economy grew by only 0.6%. Eight of the top ten companies on the highest-profits table are from the U.S., led by Ford, Exxon, and GM. Combining industrial with service companies has heightened the G-7 countries' dominance of the 500; they now claim 435 companies--up from 411 on last year's industrial-only list. Argentina, Malaysia, and Luxembourg, for example, no longer fly flags here. Barely hanging in are Austria, Finland, Hong Kong, India, and Venezuela, with one company each.

[Text Not Available. Ranks the 500 biggest companies of the world within countries with revenues, profits, headquarters, CEOs and telephone numbers.]