The Europe's 500 focuses on employment creation. Companies who have nominated themselves and successfully met the criteria and verification process are ranked according to the David Birch Employee Growth Index.

This index focuses on employment creation combining both relative and absolute growth and is used to rank and quantify the companies' performance.

The BIRCH Index represents:

The absolute difference in employment between the upper (End 2003)

and

the lower (End 2000) reference year

multiplied by

Employment in the upper reference year

divided by

employment in the lower reference year.

Example: if a company grew its employment from 200 employees in 2000 to 800 employees in 2003, the Birch index would be:

= (800-200) x (800/200) = 600 x 4 = 2400