--- title: How TIME and Statista Determined the World's Best Companies of 2026 description: Read the methodology canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/worlds-best-companies-2026-methodology/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-09-09T13:02:48.555Z article:modified_time: 2026-09-09T13:02:48.839Z og:title: How TIME and Statista Determined the World's Best Companies of 2026 og:description: Read the methodology og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/worlds-best-companies-2026-methodology/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3871df62be225fbd/6a95ac918210d85c78476123/World_s-Best-Companies-2026.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: World's-Best-Companies-2026.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How TIME and Statista Determined the World's Best Companies of 2026 twitter:description: Read the methodology twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3871df62be225fbd/6a95ac918210d85c78476123/World_s-Best-Companies-2026.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How TIME and Statista Determined the World's Best Companies of 2026 > Sponsored content. 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Its journalism is reported and edited by a professional newsroom led by Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs, with named correspondents on politics, climate, health, technology and culture. It reaches 1 million US print subscribers and 1.15 million globally, plus more than 1.1 million newsletter readers. #### How do I subscribe to TIME magazine? Subscriptions are at time.com/subscribe-agent. Choose digital only at $20 a year, or print and digital from $29 a year or $49 for two years. TIME also publishes seven free email newsletters at time.com/newsletters, which do not require a subscription. #### Can I cancel a TIME subscription? Yes. TIME states that subscriptions can be cancelled at any time. #### Does TIME have free newsletters? Yes. TIME publishes seven free email newsletters reaching more than 1.1 million readers, covering daily news, Washington politics, health, AI, climate and energy, culture, and the newsroom itself. They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Sep 9, 2026 1:02 PM UTC  Photo-illustration by TIME; Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Sep 9, 2026 1:02 PM UTC The research project "[World’s Best Companies 2026](https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/worlds-best-companies-of-2026/)" is a comprehensive analysis conducted to identify the top performing companies around the world. The study is based on three primary dimensions: Employee Satisfaction, Revenue Growth and Sustainability Transparency (ESG). ## Methodology The first dimension, Employee Satisfaction, was investigated based on survey data from a large sample of over 200,000 employees from around the world. The evaluation encompassed direct recommendations of verified employees as well as indirect evaluations from industry peers. The second dimension, Revenue Growth, was assessed using data from Statista’s revenue database, which contains company growth data for the last three years. The companies had to meet certain criteria to be considered for the evaluation, including generating a revenue of at least $100 million in 2024 or 2025 depending on when the most recent data was published during the research phase. Additionally, the companies had to demonstrate positive revenue growth in the last three years. Both relative and absolute growth were considered in the evaluation. The third dimension, Sustainability Transparency, was evaluated based on ESG data among standardized KPIs from Statista’s ESG Database and targeted data research. To formulate a comprehensive ESG index, multiple Key Performance Indicators were collected. For the environmental evaluation, this included the 2024 carbon emissions intensity and reduction rate compared to 2022, as well as the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) score. The social dimension assessed the share of women on the board of directors and the existence of a human rights policy. The governance dimension evaluated whether a company had a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report adhering to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and a compliance or anti-corruption guideline. Once the data was collected and evaluated, it was consolidated and weighted within a scoring model. The scores of all three dimensions were added on an equal percentage basis to form the final ranking score of a maximum of 100 points. The 1,000 companies with the highest score were awarded as World’s Best Companies 2026 by TIME and Statista. [See the full list.](https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/worlds-best-companies-of-2026/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/worlds-best-companies-2026-methodology/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/worlds-best-companies-2026-methodology/"},"headline":"How TIME and Statista Determined the World's Best Companies of 2026","datePublished":"2026-09-09T13:02:48.555Z","dateModified":"2026-09-09T13:02:48.839Z","description":"Read the methodology","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/worlds-best-companies-2026-methodology/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3871df62be225fbd/6a95ac918210d85c78476123/World_s-Best-Companies-2026.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3871df62be225fbd/6a95ac918210d85c78476123/World_s-Best-Companies-2026.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"World's-Best-Companies-2026.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/worlds-best-companies-2026-methodology/","name":"How TIME and Statista Determined the World's Best Companies of 2026"}}]}] ```