The World Factbook (ISSN 1553-8133; also known as the CIA World Factbook)[2] is an annual publication of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The Factbook provides a two- to three-page summary of the demographics, geography, communications, government, economy, and military of 266[3] 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.[4] However, it is frequently used as a resource for research papers and Web sites.[5] As a work of the U.S. government, it is in the public domain.[6]
In researching the Factbook, the CIA uses the sources listed below. Other public and private sources are also consulted.[4]
Because the Factbook is in the public domain, people are free to redistribute and modify it in any way that they like, without permission of the CIA.[4] However, the CIA requests that it be cited when the Factbook is used.[6] The official seal of the CIA, however, may not be copied without permission as required by the CIA Act of 1949 (50 U.S.C. section 403m). Misuse of the official seal of the CIA could result in civil and criminal penalties.[7]
Before November 2001, The World Factbook website was updated yearly.[8] Since then, the Factbook website is updated every two weeks; the print edition is still updated annually.[8] Generally, information currently available as of January 1 of the current year[9] is used in preparing the printed Factbook, which is released around the middle of each year.[8]
The first classified edition of Factbook was published in August 1962 and the first unclassified version in June 1971.[10] The World Factbook has been available to the public in print since 1975[10] and on the World Wide Web since October 1994.[11] The Web version gets an average of 6 million visits per month;[5] it can also be downloaded.[12] The official printed version is sold[13] at cost by the Government Printing Office and National Technical Information Service. In past years, the Factbook was available on CD-ROM,[14] microfiche, magnetic tape, and floppy disk.[15]
Many Internet sites use information and images from the CIA World Factbook.[16] Several publishers, including Grand River Books,[17] Potomac Books (formerly known as Brassy's Inc.),[18] and Skyhorse Publishing[19] have re-published the factbook in recent years.
As of February 2008, The World Factbook consists of 266 entities.[3] These entities can be divided into categories.[3] They are:
Before 1998, the United Kingdom profile contained a sentence that asserted the UK had gained independence on 1 January 1801.[59] This terse, confusing description in reference to the Act of Union 1801 has since been greatly expanded.[60]
This is a list of International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) for the Government edition[61] of The World Factbook. ISBNs for the Potomac Books and Skyhorse Publishing reprints of the Factbook are noted as well. For the reprint editions, the year of the data is in parentheses.
This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.
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