The World Factbook

Reference resource produced by the CIA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 Web site, 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.

LanguageAmerican English
SubjectGeneral
GenreAlmanac about the countries of the world
PublisherCentral Intelligence Agency
Quick facts Language, Subject ...
The World Factbook
Emblem
LanguageAmerican English
SubjectGeneral
GenreAlmanac about the countries of the world
PublisherCentral Intelligence Agency
Publication date
See frequency of updates and availability, discontinued February 2026
Publication placeUnited States
WebsiteThe World Factbook at the Wayback Machine (archived January 31, 2026)
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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 Web sites, 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 It has been archived by The Mozilla Data Collective and the Factbook Archive.[5][6]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

Cover of the U.S. government print edition of The World Factbook (2023 edition)

Sources

In researching the Factbook, the CIA used the sources listed below, among other public and private sources.[3]

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

The World Factbook website as it appeared in January 2025

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 (50 U.S.C. § 403m).

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.[citation needed] 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 Web sites, including closure of health sites, and restrictions on the Smithsonian Institution and the National Park Service.[14]

Entities listed

Main article: List of entities and changes in The World Factbook
Map of the world published by the CIA World Factbook in 2016

As of July 2011, 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:
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 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.[30]

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

Alternative publications

References

External links

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