How many employees does Walmart have? Headcount by year from its 10-K

This page is for sellers sizing Walmart as an account, analysts comparing employers, and anyone who needs a citable figure. Every headcount below comes from Walmart's own annual report on Form 10-K, which states the number of associates (Walmart's word for employees) at the end of each fiscal year. Walmart's fiscal year ends on January 31 and is named for the calendar year it ends in, so fiscal 2026 ran from February 1, 2025 to January 31, 2026.

Walmart employees by year

Walmart rounds to the nearest 100,000, so a change of tens of thousands of jobs can sit inside "about 2.1 million" for years. Treat the flat run from 2023 to 2026 as "no change large enough to move the rounded figure", not as an exact match.

What the number includes

The fiscal 2026 10-K says the business "is delivered by our approximately 2.1 million associates around the world with approximately 1.6 million associates in the U.S. and approximately 0.5 million associates internationally." Older filings spell out the scope: "Walmart Inc. and our subsidiaries employed more than 2.2 million employees ("associates") worldwide" (fiscal 2020). So the figure:

• Counts part-time staff. In the US, about 68% of associates are full-time, which leaves roughly a third part-time, and about 92% are paid hourly.
• Covers all three segments and their subsidiaries: Walmart U.S. (4,611 stores), Sam's Club U.S. (601 clubs) and Walmart International (5,743 stores in 18 countries, including majority-owned operations in India, Mexico and Central America).
• Doesn't say how it treats temporary or agency workers. The 10-K describes associates employed by Walmart and its subsidiaries and gives no separate contractor count, so don't add or subtract one.
• Is a point-in-time count at January 31, after the holiday season, not an annual average.

What changed and why

The filings explain the two moves in the series.

• Fiscal 2021 (to January 2021): up to more than 2.3 million. The 10-K lists "hiring more than 500,000 new associates" among Walmart's pandemic responses that year. Hires aren't net growth (they also replace leavers), but the worldwide count rose from more than 2.2 million to more than 2.3 million.
• Fiscal 2022 and 2023: international down from 0.7 million to 0.5 million. Walmart sold Walmart Argentina in November 2020, Asda in February 2021 and Seiyu in March 2021, according to the fiscal 2022 10-K, which says it "operated in the United Kingdom and Japan prior to the sale of those operations in the first quarter of fiscal 2022." The US count also slipped from about 1.7 million to about 1.6 million in fiscal 2023; the filing doesn't give a reason.

The latest 10-K points to where the workforce is heading rather than giving a number. It describes "development of a digitally skilled, AI-enabled workforce", reshaping roles and "identifying areas where AI can automate repetitive tasks." Walmart hasn't published a headcount target, so read that as a direction, not a forecast.

Revenue per employee

Total revenues for fiscal 2026 were $713,163 million. Divided by about 2.1 million associates, that's about $339,600 per associate (our calculation). Because the headcount is rounded, the true figure sits between about $331,700 (at 2.15 million) and $347,900 (at 2.05 million).

The trend matters more than the level: revenue grew about 10% over two years while the rounded headcount stayed put.

The 10-K splits headcount by country, not by segment. Combining it with segment revenue (Walmart U.S. $485.6 billion plus Sam's Club U.S. $95.5 billion, against $132.0 billion for Walmart International) gives about $363,000 of revenue per US associate and about $264,000 per international associate (our calculation). Markets differ in store format, price levels and currency, so don't read the gap as a productivity score.

Selling to a company of Walmart's size

General guidance, not a description of Walmart's internal process.

A 2.1 million person company doesn't buy as one organization. Budgets usually sit with a segment (Walmart U.S., Sam's Club, an international market) or a corporate function (technology, finance, people, supply chain), and each has its own owners, approval limits and vendor reviews.

• Pick the segment and the function first. "Walmart" is not a target; the store operations technology team for US stores, or the people team running a named training program, is.
• Use the 10-K as a map. It names the programs a vendor might support (Walmart Academy for training, Live Better U for education benefits), the segment structure and the stated priorities, such as AI tools for associates.
• Expect a long, staged process: security and data reviews, a pilot in a region or a set of stores, then a wider rollout. Plan your pipeline around it.
• Size your offer to the hourly workforce. With 92% of US associates paid hourly, scheduling, training, safety and communication tools are judged per store and per associate, not per desk.

For a full research routine on accounts this large, see how to research an account, and how to find decision makers for reaching the right owner. To compare Walmart with its peers, see the largest retailers.

How to check the number yourself

Open Walmart's latest 10-K on SEC EDGAR, search the document for "associates", and read the Human Capital Management section in Item 1. The figure and its date are in the first paragraph. The new 10-K arrives each March, so a figure older than about 14 months is out of date.

Next step: compare Walmart with the other big employers on our list of the largest employers in the US.