The World Factbook, also known as the CIA World Factbook,[1] is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available from the Government Publishing Office. The Factbook is available in website and downloadable formats. It provides a two- to three-page summary of the demographics, geography, communications, government, economy, and military of 266 international entities,[2] including U.S.-recognized countries, dependencies, and other areas in the world.
The World Factbook is prepared by the CIA for the use of U.S. government officials, and its style, format, coverage, and content are primarily designed to meet their requirements.[3] It is also frequently used as a resource for academic research papers and news articles.[4] As a work of the U.S. government, it is in the public domain in the United States.[5]
Sources
In researching the Factbook, the CIA uses the sources listed below, among other public and private sources.[6]
The Factbook is in the public domain and may be redistributed in part or in whole without need for permission,[6] although the CIA requests that the Factbook be cited if used.[5] Copying the official seal of the CIA without permission is prohibited by the US federal Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 (50 U.S.C.§ 403m).
Frequency of updates and availability
Before November 2001, The World Factbook website was updated yearly;[7] from 2004 to 2010 it was updated every two weeks;[7] since 2010 it has been updated weekly.[8] Generally, information currently available as of January 1 of the current year[9] is used in preparing the Factbook.
Government edition
The first classified edition of Factbook was published in August 1962, and the first unclassified version in June 1971.[10]The World Factbook was first available to the public in print in 1975.[10] Until 2008 the CIA printed the Factbook; from then it has been printed by the Government Printing Office[11] following a CIA decision to "focus Factbook resources" on the online edition.[12] The Factbook has been available via the World Wide Web (The internet) since October 1994,[13] receiving about six million visits per month in 2006;[4] it can also be downloaded.[14] The official printed version is sold[15] by the Government Printing Office and National Technical Information Service. In past years, the Factbook was available on CD-ROM,[16]microfiche,[17]magnetic tape,[17] and floppy disk.[17]
Reprints and older editions online
Many Internet sites use information and images from the CIA World Factbook.[18] Several publishers, including Grand River Books,[19] Potomac Books (formerly known as Brassey's Inc.),[20] and Skyhorse Publishing[21] have published the Factbook in recent years. Older editions since 2000 may be downloaded (but not browsed) from the Factbook Web site.[5]
As of July 2011[update], The World Factbook comprises 266 entities,[2] which can be divided into the following categories:[22]
Independent countries
The CIA defines these as people "politically organized into a sovereign state with a definite territory."[22] In this category, there are 195 entities.
Others
Places set apart from the list of independent countries. Currently there are two: Taiwan and the European Union.
Dependencies and Areas of Special Sovereignty
Places affiliated with another country. They may be subcategorized by affiliated country:
Antarctica and places in dispute. There are six such entities.
Other entities
The World and the oceans. There are five oceans and the World (the World entry is intended as a summary of the other entries).[4]
Territorial issues and controversies
This section possibly contains original research. Most references point to specific sections in the fact book, rather than sources critical of it; i.e. the criticisms are from the editor. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed.(February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Political
This list contains entries that may be out of scope and need to be evaluated for removal. Please help to clean it up by removing items that do not meet the inclusion criteria agreed upon on the talk page.(July 2023)
Areas not covered
Specific regions within a country or areas in dispute among countries, such as Kashmir, are not covered,[23] but other areas of the world whose status is disputed, such as the Spratly Islands, have entries.[23][24] Subnational areas of countries (such as U.S. states or the Canadian provinces and territories) are not included in the Factbook. Instead, users looking for information about subnational areas are referred to "a comprehensive encyclopedia" for their reference needs.[25] This criterion was invoked in the 2007[26] and 2011[27] editions with the decision to drop the entries for French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, and Reunion. They were dropped because besides being overseas departments, they were now overseas regions, and an integral part of France.[26][27] Since the Trump administration's recognition of Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara in late 2020, most of its data has been merged into Morocco's page.[28][29]
Some entries on the World Factbook are known to be in line with the political views and agenda of the United States. The United States is said to have been behind both the excision of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritian territory and the forcible expulsion of the Chagossians from their lands to establish a military base on one of the island of the archipelago, namely Diego Garcia.[30] The US does not recognise the sovereignty of Mauritius over the Chagos Archipelago and the archipelago is listed as the British Indian Ocean Territory on the CIA Website.[31] The website further erroneously mentioned that the Chagos Archipelago is also claimed by the Seychelles,[31] while officially 116 countries including the Seychelles against only 6 countries including the United States voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution dated 24 May 2019 which called upon the UK to withdraw its colonial administration from the Chagos Archipelago unconditionally to enable Mauritius to complete the decolonization of its territory as rapidly as possible.[32][33]
Northern Cyprus, which the U.S. considers part of the Republic of Cyprus, is not given a separate entry because "territorial occupations/annexations not recognized by the United States Government are not shown on U.S. Government maps."[35]
The name "Republic of China" is not listed as Taiwan's official name under the "Government" section,[36] due to U.S. acknowledgement of Beijing's One-China policy according to which there is one China and Taiwan is a part of it.[37] The name "Republic of China" was briefly added on January 27, 2005,[38] but has since been changed back to "none".[36] Of the Factbook's two maps of China, one highlights the island of Taiwan as part of the country[34] while the other does not.[39]
Disputed South China Sea Islands
The Paracel Islands and Spratly Islands, subjects of territorial disputes, have entries in the Factbook where they are not listed as the territory of any one nation. The disputed claims to the islands are discussed in the entries.[40][41]
Burma/Myanmar
The U.S. does not recognize the renaming of Burma by its ruling military junta to Myanmar and thus keeps its entry for the country under the Burma name.[42]
North Macedonia
The country was first entered as Macedonia in the Factbook upon independence in 1992.[43] In the 1994 edition, the name of the entry was changed to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as it is recognised by the United Nations (pending resolution of the Macedonia naming dispute).[44][45] For the next decade, this was the name the nation was listed under. In the 2004 edition of the Factbook, the name of the entry was changed back to Macedonia, following a November 2004 U.S. decision to refer to the country using this name.[46][47][48] On February 19, 2019, the entry was renamed to North Macedonia following the country's name change to the Republic of North Macedonia.
European Union
On December 16, 2004, the CIA added an entry for the European Union (EU) for the first time.[49][50] The "What's New" section of the 2005 Factbook states: "The European Union continues to accrue more nation-like characteristics for itself and so a separate listing was deemed appropriate."[37]
United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges and Iles Eparses
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) broke apart in 1991. The following year, it was replaced in the Factbook with entries for each of its former constituent republics.[43] In doing this, the CIA listed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), proclaimed in 1992, as Serbia and Montenegro, as the U.S. did not recognize the union between the two republics.[56][57] This was done in accordance with a May 21, 1992, decision by the U.S. not to recognize any of the former Yugoslav republics[58][59] as successor states to the recently dissolved SFRY.
These views were made clear in a disclaimer printed in the Factbook: "Serbia and Montenegro have asserted the formation of a joint independent state, but this entity has not been recognized as a state by the United States."[61] Montenegro and Serbia were treated separately in the Factbook data, as can be seen on the map.[62] In October 2000, Slobodan Milošević was forced out of office after a disputed election.[63] This event led to democratic elections and U.S. diplomatic recognition. The 2001 edition of the Factbook thus referred to the state as Yugoslavia.[64] On March 14, 2002, an agreement was signed to transform the FRY into a loose state union called Serbia and Montenegro;[65] it took effect on February 4, 2003.[66] The name of the Yugoslavia entity was altered in the Factbook the month after the change.[67]
In June 2009, National Public Radio (NPR), relying on information obtained from The World Factbook, put the number of Israeli Jews living in settlements in the West Bank and Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem at 250,000. However, a better estimate, based on State Department and Israeli sources put the figure at about 500,000. NPR then issued a correction. Chuck Holmes, foreign editor for NPR Digital, said, "I'm surprised and displeased, and it makes me wonder what other information is out-of-date or incorrect in the CIA World Factbook."[70]
The factbook currently states that only four percent of Botswana are practitioners of the indigenous Badimo religion,[71] in reality a great majority of Botswana follow at least some of the traditions deemed Badimo.[72]
Scholars have acknowledged that some entries in the Factbook are out of date.[73]
The inclusion of the metric countries.
The government's own National Institute of Standards and Technology contradicts the CIA factbook website, stating that three countries have "not adopted" the metric system is incorrect.[74] At the time a better term would be have been "not committed", however this is not the case anymore as of 2023 all countries listed are committed to adopting the metric system including the US.[75][76]
^ ab"The World Factbook". CIA. January 5, 2023. Archived from the original on January 4, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
^Directorate of Intelligence. "About The World Factbook—Copyright and Contributors". Archived from the original on December 30, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2021. The World Factbook is prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency for the use of US Government officials, and the style, format, coverage, and content are designed to meet their specific requirements. Information is provided by other public and private sources. The Factbook is in the public domain. Accordingly, it may be copied freely without the permission of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
^ abc"CIA World Factbook 2006 Now Available" (Press release). Central Intelligence Agency. April 5, 2006. Archived from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved January 11, 2007. The World Factbook remains the CIA's most widely disseminated and most popular product, now averaging almost 6 million visits each month. In addition, tens of thousands of government, commercial, academic, and other Web sites link to or replicate the online version of the Factbook. * * * Included among the 271 geographic entries is one for the "World", which incorporates data and other information summarized where possible from the other 270 country listings.
^ abDirectorate of Intelligence. "About The World Factbook—Copyright and Contributors". Archived from the original on December 30, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2021. The World Factbook is prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency for the use of US Government officials, and the style, format, coverage, and content are designed to meet their specific requirements. Information is provided by other public and private sources. The Factbook is in the public domain. Accordingly, it may be copied freely without permission of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
^Directorate of Intelligence (November 24, 2010). "World Factbook Updates – October 22, 2010". Archived from the original on May 14, 2011. Retrieved December 1, 2010. Since 2004, The World Factbook website has been updated on a bi-weekly schedule. Culminating a three-month trial effort, we are pleased to announce that the Factbook will now be updated on a weekly basis.
^ abDirectorate of Intelligence. "The World Factbook – History". Archived from the original on June 12, 2007. Retrieved March 3, 2007. The first classified Factbook was published in August 1962, and the first unclassified version was published in June 1971.
^Directorate of Intelligence (2008). CIA – The World Factbook 2008: Purchasing Information. Government Printing Office. ISBN9780160873614. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved April 19, 2015. The Government Printing Office has assumed production of The World Factbook print edition. The CIA has decided to focus Factbook resources exclusively on the World Wide Web online edition...
^Miller, Jill Young. "CIA puts data on the internet." Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel 12 December 1994.
^Directorate of Intelligence. "The World Factbook – Purchasing Information". Archived from the original on June 12, 2007. Retrieved September 23, 2006. Other users may obtain sales information about printed copies from the following: Superintendent of Documents...National Technical Information Service
^Texas A&M University Libraries. "Introduction to Comparative Politics POLS 329". Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved January 2, 2008. The world factbook (Handbook of the Nations). Detroit, Mich.: Grand River Books, 1981–.
^ abDirectorate of Intelligence. "The World Factbook – Notes and Definitions: Entities". Archived from the original on June 12, 2007. Retrieved July 12, 2011. "Independent state" refers to a people politically organized into a sovereign state with a definite territory. * * * There are a total of 266 separate geographic entities in The World Factbook that may be categorized as follows...
^ abDirectorate of Intelligence (April 8, 2011). "World Factbook Updates – April 8, 2011". Archived from the original on April 9, 2011. Retrieved April 11, 2011. The Indian Ocean island entity of Mayotte became an overseas department of France on 31 March. The change in status makes it an integral part of France and so its description is now included in the France country profile of The World Factbook. (Archived by WebCite at
)
^ abDirectorate of Intelligence (September 19, 2006). "The World Factbook – Taiwan". Archived from the original on January 9, 2021. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
^Directorate of Intelligence (January 27, 2005). "The World Factbook – Taiwan". Archived from the original on January 9, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
^"China". CIA World Factbook. CIA. Archived from the original on February 13, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
^"Paracel Islands". CIA World Factbook. CIA. Archived from the original on June 17, 2022. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
^"Spratly Islands". CIA World Factbook. CIA. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
^Directorate of Intelligence (September 19, 2006). "The World Factbook – Burma". Archived from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved September 23, 2006. since 1989 the military authorities in Burma have promoted the name Myanmar as a conventional name for their state; this decision was not approved by any sitting legislature in Burma, and the US Government did not adopt the name, which is a derivative of the Burmese short-form name Myanma Naingngandaw
^Staff reporter (November 4, 2004). "US snubs Greece over Macedonia". BBC News. Archived from the original on November 12, 2006. Retrieved September 23, 2006. Greece has protested strongly at a decision by the US to refer to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) simply as "Macedonia".
^For an example of a redirect, see what happens with the profileArchived 2022-01-26 at the Wayback Machine for Juan de Nova Island (mirror).
^Directorate of Intelligence (July 19, 2007). "CIA – The World Factbook 2007: What's New". Archived from the original on June 7, 2007. Retrieved July 20, 2007. The five former entities of Bassas da India, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island, and Tromelin Island, previously grouped as Iles Eparses (Scattered Islands), now constitute a district of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.
^Department of State (August 1999). "Serbia and Montenegro (08/99) (See Yugoslavia)". Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved February 3, 2007. (Serbia and Montenegro have asserted the formation of a joint independent state, but this entity has not been recognized as a state by the United States.)
^Directorate of Intelligence (1999). "CIA – The World Factbook 1999 – Serbia and Montenegro". Archived from the original on November 9, 1999. Retrieved October 17, 2010. Serbia and Montenegro have asserted the formation of a joint independent state, but this entity has not been formally recognized as a state by the US. The US view is that the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) has dissolved and that none of the successor republics represents its continuation.
^Staff reporter (March 14, 2002). "Yugoslav partners sign historic deal". BBC News. Archived from the original on January 7, 2009. Retrieved October 30, 2006. Serbia and Montenegro have signed an accord which will consign the name Yugoslavia to history and shelve any immediate plans for Montenegrin independence.
^Staff reporter (February 4, 2003). "Yugoslavia consigned to history". BBC News. Archived from the original on November 8, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2006. From now on it will be called just Serbia and Montenegro—the two remaining republics joined in a loose union.
^Directorate of Intelligence (March 19, 2003). "CIA – The World Factbook 2002: What's new". Archived from the original on April 8, 2003. Retrieved October 17, 2010. Yugoslavia has been renamed Serbia and Montenegro as of 4 February 2003.
^Directorate of Intelligence (February 28, 2008). "The World Factbook – Kosovo". Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved February 29, 2008.
^Directorate of Intelligence (July 19, 2007). "CIA – The World Factbook 2007: What's New". Archived from the original on June 7, 2007. Retrieved July 20, 2007. The US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) now recognizes Timor-Leste as the short form name for East Timor* * *
^"Botswana", The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, January 19, 2023, archived from the original on April 12, 2021, retrieved January 26, 2023
^"U.S. Metrication Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)". NIST. August 28, 2023. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Factbook is one of the often cited sources of the U.S./Liberia/Burma metric myth. The first unclassified version of the CIA Factbook was published around the same time the U.S. Metric Study. It's likely that the original list of "uncommitted" countries was incorporated, then edited as countries adopted mandatory metric laws. Over the years, many web resources have quoted the CIA Factbook, perpetuating the metric myth and elevating the map to a pop culture meme.
On stephansmap.org – The CIA World Factbook accessible by location and date range; covers the years 2001–2007. All Factbook entries are tagged with "cia". Requires graphical browser with JavaScript.