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There are 5,586 companies in the world whose age exceeds two hundred years. These companies are located in 41 countries.
While various of the businesses that feature so prominently in our daily lives (Google, Amazon, Apple, etc.) are almost new, many companies around the globe are older than nations like the United States, in fact – and a few of the oldest has been in business for more than one thousand years.
According to BusinessFinancing, in forty-one nations, there were 5,586 businesses older than two hundred years. Fifty-six percent (3,146) of all the oldest companies in the world are based in Japan, 15 percent (837) in Germany, 4 percent (222) in the Netherlands, and 3 percent (196) in France. Of the companies with more than one hundred years of history, most of them (89 percent) hire less than three hundred people.
Japan has the oldest companies. In this country, more than 21 thousand companies are older than one hundred years. The oldest business in the world is Kongo Gumi, a temple construction company in Japan that was founded in 578 AD.
Top 20 the oldest companies in the world
Kongō Gumi – Japanese construction company (578 CE)
Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan – hot spring hotel in Hayakawa, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan (705 CE)
Koman – a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in Kinosaki, Hyōgo Onsen, Toyooka City, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan (717 CE)
Hōshi – a ryokan in the Awazu Onsen area of Komatsu, in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan (718 CE)
Genda Shigyō – a Japanese paper production company (771 CE)
St. Peter Stiftskulinarium – a restaurant within the walls of St Peter’s Abbey in Salzburg, Austria (803 CE)
Staffelter Hof – a family-run winery, distillery and guest house (862 CE)
Monnaie de Paris – a government-owned institution responsible for producing France’s euro coins (864 CE)
Tanaka-Iga – a Japanese company that provides Buddhist goods (885 CE)
Royal Mint – a government-owned mint that produces coins for the United Kingdom (886 CE)
Sean’s Bar – a pub on the County Roscommon side of the town of Athlone, Ireland (900 CE)
The Bingley Arms – the oldest pub in Britain (953 CE)
Nakamura Shaji – a Japanese construction company, located in Aichi Prefecture, Japan (970 CE)
Château de Goulaine – a winery in the Loire Valley, France (1000 CE)
Marinelli Bell Foundry in Italy (1000 CE)
Ichimonjiya Wasuke – a traditional confectionery company, located in Kita-Ku, Kyoto, Japan (1000 CE)
Shumiya-Shinbutsuguten – a Japanese company that produces Buddhist goods (1024 CE)
Weihenstephan – a German brewery (1040 CE)
Weltenburger – a German brewery (1050 CE)
Otterton Mill – a watermill in Devon, England (1068 CE)
The oldest companies in Northern and Central America
The oldest business in every country worldwide
