Apple has moved up 32 places to rank 71 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest US corporations ranked by revenue. While it was due in some part to declining revenues from companies ranked above it, Apple managed a 35 percent increase year-over-year to pull in $32.5 billion for 2008. This is the first time Apple made it to the top 100 since Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997.

The highest Apple managed to rank was 67 in 1994. The company dropped off the Fortune 500 list altogether from 1996 until 2005, when it entered at 263. Apple’s ranking has climbed ever since.

While Apple is expected to show negative year-over-year growth for its second fiscal quarter of 2009, at least one analyst is still expecting Apple to move about 2.2 million Macs for the quarter. If Apple can prevent further erosion to growth of Mac sales, Apple could still have a pretty stellar year in 2009. Further, the delayed reporting of revenue from the millions of iPhones sold in 2008 will continue to help Apple keep its revenues up despite the economic downturn.

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