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Fortune favours the big Jul 12th 2012, 15:45 by The Economist online Where are the biggest companies in the world WHEN RANKED by revenue America has almost twice as many companies in the biggest 500 than any other country, according to Fortune. This is not solely down to its size; America's ratio of companies to people is also striking. It has one company on Fortune's list for every 2.4m people, only a handful of European economies do better. China is moving in on America's spot though. In 2005 the Middle Kingdom housed only 16 of the biggest firms. This year it has 73-more than Japan. In contrast to the American way, China's government has a hand in most of its biggest firms. The highest ranked is Sinopec, an oil producer, which came in fifth. A look at the ratio of big firms to GDP highlights the places where tax is low and business is easy to do. Luxembourg (not shown) does best with 34 companies per trillion dollars, followed by Switzerland and Taiwan. All 500 firms on the list racked up combined revenue of $29trn. From this $1.6trn was profit, about the same as Australia's GDP.

"The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan was almost totally isolated from the rest of the world until the 1970s. The internet and television arrived only in 1999. Although it stepped into the internet age very late, social media websites like Facebook and Twitter have caught on rapidly. Today there are an estimated 80,000 Facebook users in Bhutan - more than 10% of its population."

"he air traffic control system over the United Kingdom keeps the nation's airspace safe"