The World Factbook
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The World Factbook, also known as the CIA World Factbook,[1] was a reference resource produced by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) between 1962 and 2026 with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. From 1971 it was not classified, and available to the public in print since 1975, initially by the CIA, and later the Government Publishing Office. The Factbook was also available via a website, and could be downloaded. It provided a two- to three-page summary of the demographics, geography, communications, government, economy, and military of 258 international entities,[2] including U.S.-recognized countries, dependencies, and other areas in the world.
The World Factbook was 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] As a work of the U.S. government, it was in the public domain in the United States. It was frequently used as a resource for academic research papers and news articles.[4]
On February 4, 2026, following the restriction and closure since 2024 of other government-funded information websites, the CIA announced, with no warning and no explanation, that The World Factbook was discontinued. It has been archived by The Mozilla Data Collective and the Factbook Archive.[5][6]
Data
Sources
In researching the Factbook, the CIA used the sources listed below, among other public and private sources.[3]
- Antarctic Information Program (National Science Foundation)
- Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center (Department of Defense)
- Bureau of the Census (Department of Commerce)
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (Department of Labor)
- Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs
- Defense Intelligence Agency (Department of Defense)
- Department of Energy
- Department of State
- Fish and Wildlife Service (Department of the Interior)
- Maritime Administration (Department of Transportation)
- National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (Department of Defense)
- Naval Facilities Engineering Command (Department of Defense)
- Office of Insular Affairs (Department of the Interior)
- Office of Naval Intelligence (Department of Defense)
- Oil & Gas Journal
- United States Board on Geographic Names (Department of the Interior)
- United States Transportation Command (Department of Defense)
Structure
Information on the listed entities was provided in the following categories: "introduction or background, geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues."[7]
Copyright
As a work of the U.S. government, the Factbook was in the public domain and could be redistributed in part or in whole without need for permission,[8][3] although the CIA requested that the Factbook be cited if used.[8] Copying the official seal of the CIA without permission is prohibited by the US federal Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 (Template:UnitedStatesCode).
Frequency of updates and availability
Before November 2001, The World Factbook website was updated yearly;[9] from 2004 to 2010 it was updated every two weeks;[9] From 2010 to 2026 it was updated weekly.[10] Generally, information available as of January 1 of the current year was used in preparing the Factbook.[11] Following efforts by CIA director John Ratcliffe to "end programs that don't advance the agency's core missions", the Factbook was discontinued on February 4, 2026,[12][13] with all pages made inaccessible.[14] No reason was given for the discontinuation.[13]
Government edition
The first classified edition of Factbook was published in August 1962, and the first unclassified version in June 1971.[15] The World Factbook was first available to the public in print in 1975.[15] Until 2008 the CIA printed the Factbook; from then until its discontinuation it was printed by the Government Printing Office[16] following a CIA decision to "focus Factbook resources" on the online edition.[17] In 2017, the printed book was officially discontinued.[18] The Factbook was made available via the World Wide Web beginning October 1994,[19] receiving about six million visits per month in 2006;[4] it was also available for download.[20] The official printed version was sold[21] by the Government Printing Office and National Technical Information Service. In past years, the Factbook was available on CD-ROM,[22] microfiche,[23] magnetic tape,[23] and floppy disk.[23]
Reprints and older editions online
Many Internet sites use information and images from the CIA World Factbook.[24] Several publishers, including Grand River Books,[25] Potomac Books (formerly known as Brassey's Inc.),[26] and Skyhorse Publishing[27] have published the Factbook in recent years. Older editions since 2000 were available for download (but not browsing) from the Factbook website until 2026.[8][14]
Discontinuation
On February 4, 2026, the CIA announced, with no warning and no explanation[28][14] and refusing to comment on the record, that The World Factbook was discontinued.[14] All versions were removed from the CIA's website immediately, which was disruptive for academic users such as the Boston University Questrom School of Business which was using it for open-book tests.[28] The Mozilla Data Collective has since published a dataset that includes the 260 world entities listed in the Factbook, capturing "the final state of the public data (Jan 23, 2026) before the official website was retired."[5] There is also another website called "Factbook Archive" that contains the information of The World Factbook from 1990 to 2025.[6]
The news channel CNN linked the closure to restriction and closure since 2024 of other government-funded information websites, including closure of health sites, and restrictions on the Smithsonian Institution and the National Park Service.[14]
Entities listed
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As of July 2011[update]Template:Dated maintenance category (articles)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., The World Factbook comprised 266 entities,[2] which can be divided into the following categories:[29]
- Independent countries
- The CIA defines these as people "politically organized into a sovereign state with a definite territory."[29] In this category, there are 195 entities.
- Others
- Places set apart from the list of independent countries. There are two of these: Taiwan and the European Union.
- Dependencies and Areas of Special Sovereignty
- Places affiliated with another country. They may be subcategorized by affiliated country:
- Australia: 6 entities
- China: 2 entities
- Denmark: 2 entities
- France: 8 entities
- Netherlands: 3 entities
- New Zealand: 3 entities
- Norway: 3 entities
- United Kingdom: 17 entities
- United States: 14 entities
- Miscellaneous
- 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]
Reception
Reference Reviews reviewed the online edition of The World Factbook in 2016, praising its "up-to-date facts and figures" through its weekly updates while expressing concern over its usability due to difficult content navigation and inadequate font sizes.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
The Factbook has been criticized for serving the interests of the United States by controlling how other countries are represented and for taking, at least in some cases, an ahistorical perspective.[7]
See also
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- World Leaders, another regular publication of the CIA[30]
- National Security Agency
- Alternative publications
- Europa World Year Book
- The New York Times Almanac
- The TIME Almanac
- Whitaker's Almanack
- The World Almanac
References
Citations
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- ↑ Miller, Jill Young. "CIA puts data on the internet." Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel 12 December 1994.
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General and cited sources
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External links
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- CIA World Factbook as XML
- 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.
- The current CIA World Factbook in Excel spreadsheet format
Mobile versions of the Factbook
- Mobile menu of 36 years of CIA World Factbooks, last updated February 2019
- World Factbook for Android Script error: No such module "webarchive". – Optimized CIA World Factbook version for Android Devices
The Factbook by year
- Wayback Machine archives of the CIA-hosted Factbook (2007Template:En-dash2017)
- Countries of the World – 36 years of the CIA World Factbook (1982–2019)
| Original (Year) | Archive (Date) |
|---|---|
| University of Missouri–St. Louis | |
| 1992 | June 11, 2008 |
| 1993 | July 5, 2008 |
| 1994 | July 9, 2008 |
| 1995 | June 20, 2008 |
| 1996 | October 1, 2008 |
| 1997 | July 19, 2008 |
| 1998 | October 1, 2008 |
| 1999 | October 1, 2008 |
| 2000 | June 27, 2008 |
| 2001 | June 15, 2008 |
| 2002 | May 26, 2008 |
| 2003 | June 15, 2008 |
| 2004 | June 15, 2008 |
| 2005 | May 13, 2008 |
| 2006 | March 23, 2022 |
| 2007 | June 12, 2008 |
| 2008 | August 5, 2012 |
| GPO Permanent Access | |
| 1991 | May 11, 2011 |
| 1990 | May 11, 2011 |
| Theodora.com | |
| 1989 | — |
| Geographic.org | |
| 1987 | — |
| 1985 | — |
| 1982 | — |
| AllCountries.org | |
| 1986 | — |
| WorkMall.com | |
| 1984 | — |
Template:Serial almanacs, factbooks, and yearbooks about world and country news, facts, and statistics Template:Authority control
- Pages with script errors
- Pages with broken file links
- Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the World Factbook
- 1962 establishments in the United States
- Academic works about intelligence analysis
- Almanacs
- Central Intelligence Agency publications
- Publications established in 1962
- Reference works in the public domain
- Internet properties disestablished in 2026
- Publications disestablished in 2026
- 2026 disestablishments in the United States