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On November 13, Forbes will present its new and improved 2026 edition of our Most Trusted Companies in America list. Whereas last year’s list considered public companies, this year’s expands to private entities, as well as foreign-based companies with a U.S. subsidiary (such as UBS). Ultimately, we analyzed more than 50 metrics across six categories, such as financial performance and trajectory, consumer trust, employee ratings, media treatment, and more. The list’s detailed methodology will be published alongside the package on November 13. Below are some of the highlights: Population: Companies with a U.S. headquarters that employ more than 10,000 people in the United States are eligible. Some types of companies were excluded from consideration, such as colleges and school districts, government offices and charitable organizations. Primary Categories, Data Partner and Subcategories: Employee Sentiment (Glassdoor): Worker ratings of their company in such categories as career opportunities, compensation and benefits, trust in senior leadership, work-life balance, company culture and values, diversity and inclusion, company business outlook, whether they would recommend their company to a friend, CEO approval, and overall. Customer Sentiment (HundredX): Consuming ratings of products they purchased in customer service, value, and dozens of others customized to their product category. Financial Performance (Forbes): One- and five-year metrics for stock price and revenue growth (to assess market and investor trust). Business Trajectory (Crunchbase): For both public and private companies, metrics that incorporate dozens of financial indicators, such as funding, market share and movements, and company growth. Media Sentiment (SignalAI): Positive and negative company coverage of executive leadership, innovation, diversity issues and financial performance. Workforce Stability (People Data Labs): Each company’s workforce growth rate, churn rate and average C-suite tenure. Total Metrics Included: More than 50. Scoring: Within each category above, metrics for each company were combined into one score for that category. This score was normalized and, when appropriate, adjusted to reflect how that compared to competitors in their sector. Those scores were then combined to create a final score that was ranked from No. 1 on down. Publishing Date: November 13, 2025. As with all Forbes lists, companies do not pay any fee to be considered or selected. Got a tip? Share confidential information with Forbes. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions
