The World Factbook is a reference resource produced by the
Central Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
of the United States with
almanacAn almanac is an annual publication that includes information such as weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, and tide tables, containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar etc...
-style information about the countries of the world. The official paper copy version is available from the National Technical Information Service and the Government Printing Office. Other companies—such as
Skyhorse PublishingSkyhorse Publishing, Inc., known as Skyhorse Publishing, was founded in 2006 and is located in New York, NY. It is an American independent book publishing company, and is distributed by W. W. Norton & Company. The current president and publisher is founder Tony Lyons, who named it after Brando...
—also print a paper edition.
The Factbook is available in the form of a website, which is partially updated every week. It is also available for download for use off-line. It provides a two- to three-page summary of the
demographicsDemography is the statistical study of human population. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic human population, that is, one that changes over time or space...
,
geographyGeography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
,
communicationCommunication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
s,
governmentGovernment refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
,
economyAn economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
, and
militaryA military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
of 267 entities including
U.S.-recognizedDiplomatic recognition in international law is a unilateral political act with domestic and international legal consequences, whereby a state acknowledges an act or status of another state or government in control of a state...
countries, dependencies, and other areas in the world.
The World Factbook is prepared by the CIA for the use of
U.S. governmentThe federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
officials, and its style, format, coverage, and content are primarily designed to meet their requirements. However, it is frequently used as a resource for academic research papers. As a
work of the U.S. governmentA work of the United States government, as defined by United States copyright law, is "a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. government as part of that person's official duties." The term only applies to the work of the federal government, including the governments of "non-organized...
, it is in the
public domain in the United StatesWorks are in the public domain if they are not covered by intellectual property rights, such as copyright, at all, or if the intellectual property rights to the works has expired.- Public domain in copyrighted works in the United States :...
.
Factbook sources
In researching the
Factbook, the CIA uses the sources listed below. Other public and private sources are also consulted.
- Antarctic Information Program (National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
)
- Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center
The National Center for Medical Intelligence at Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA — formerly the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center — is an agency within the Defense Intelligence Agency of the United States Department of Defense ; its mission is to track and assess the full range of global...
(Department of DefenseThe United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
)
- Bureau of the Census
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
(Department of CommerceThe United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...
)
- Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. The BLS is a governmental statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and...
(Department of LaborThe United States Department of Labor is a Cabinet department of the United States government responsible for occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, re-employment services, and some economic statistics. Many U.S. states also have such departments. The...
)
- Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs
- Defense Intelligence Agency
The Defense Intelligence Agency is a member of the Intelligence Community of the United States, and is the central producer and manager of military intelligence for the United States Department of Defense, employing over 16,500 U.S. military and civilian employees worldwide...
(Department of Defense)
- Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
- Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
- Fish and Wildlife Service
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is a federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats...
(Department of the InteriorThe United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native...
)
- Maritime Administration (Department of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation is a federal Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with transportation. It was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, and began operation on April 1, 1967...
)
- National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States with the primary mission of collecting, analyzing and distributing geospatial intelligence in support of national security. NGA was formerly known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency ...
(Department of Defense)
- Naval Facilities Engineering Command (Department of Defense)
- Office of Insular Affairs
The Office of Insular Affairs is a unit of the United States Department of the Interior that oversees federal administration of several United States possessions...
(Department of the Interior)
- Office of Naval Intelligence
The Office of Naval Intelligence was established in the United States Navy in 1882. ONI was established to "seek out and report" on the advancements in other nations' navies. Its headquarters are at the National Maritime Intelligence Center in Suitland, Maryland...
(Department of Defense)
- Oil & Gas Journal
The Oil & Gas Journal is a leading petroleum industry weekly publication with a worldwide coverage. It is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the journal has a major presence in Houston, Texas. The journal is published by PennWell Corporation. Its publisher is Paul Westervelt, Vice President of...
- US Board on Geographic Names
The United States Board on Geographic Names is a United States federal body whose purpose is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the U.S. government.-Overview:...
(Department of the Interior)
- US Transportation Command
The United States Transportation Command is one of nine unified commands of the United States Department of Defense. The mission of USTRANSCOM is to provide air, land and sea transportation for the Department of Defense, both in time of peace and time of war.USTRANSCOM, located at Scott Air Force...
(Department of Defense)
Copyright
Because the
Factbook is in the
public domainWorks are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
, people are free to redistribute and modify it in any way that they like, without permission of the CIA. However, the CIA requests that it be
citedBroadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source . More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source (not always the original source). More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated...
when the
Factbook is used. The official seal of the CIA, however, may not be copied without permission as required by the
Central Intelligence Agency ActThe Central Intelligence Agency Act, , is a United States federal law enacted in 1949.The Act, also called the "CIA Act of 1949" or "Public Law 110" permitted the Central Intelligence Agency to use confidential fiscal and administrative procedures and exempting it from many of the usual limitations...
of 1949 .
Frequency of updates and availability
Before November 2001
The World Factbook website was updated yearly; from 2004 to 2010 it was updated every two weeks; since 2010 it has been updated weekly. Generally, information currently available as of January 1 of the current year is used in preparing the
Factbook.
Government edition of the Factbook
The first,
classifiedClassified information is sensitive information to which access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of persons. A formal security clearance is required to handle classified documents or access classified data. The clearance process requires a satisfactory background investigation...
, edition of
Factbook was published in August 1962, and the first unclassified version in June 1971.
The World Factbook was first available to the public in print in 1975. In 2008 the CIA discontinued printing the
Factbook themselves, instead turning printing responsibilities over to the Government Printing Office. This happened due to a CIA decision to "focus Factbook resources" on the online edition. The
Factbook has been on the
World Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
since October 1994. The Web version gets an average of 6 million visits per month; it can also be downloaded. The official printed version is sold by the Government Printing Office and
National Technical Information ServiceThe National Technical Information Service is an agency within the United States Department of Commerce that serves as the U.S. government repository for research and development results and for other information produced by and for the government as well as a variety of public and private sources...
. In past years, the
Factbook was available on
CD-ROMA CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
, microfiche,
magnetic tapeMagnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...
, and
floppy diskA floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
.
Reprints and older editions online
Many Internet sites use information and images from the CIA
World Factbook. Several publishers, including Grand River Books, Potomac Books (formerly known as Brassey's Inc.), and
Skyhorse PublishingSkyhorse Publishing, Inc., known as Skyhorse Publishing, was founded in 2006 and is located in New York, NY. It is an American independent book publishing company, and is distributed by W. W. Norton & Company. The current president and publisher is founder Tony Lyons, who named it after Brando...
have re-published the
Factbook in recent years.
Older editions of the CIA
World Factbook, going back to 1989, country rankings constructed from CIA data, and additional country information from other sources are available at the
Countries of the World website, which was begun in 1996.
Entities listed
As of July 2011,
The World Factbook consists of
267 entities. These entities can be divided into categories. They are:
Independent countries: This category has independent countries, which the CIA defines as people "politically organized into a sovereign state with a definite territory". In this category, there are
195 entities.
Others: The
Other category is a list of other places set apart from the list of independent countries. Currently there are
two:
TaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
and the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
.
Dependencies and Areas of Special Sovereignty: This category is a list of places affiliated with another country. They may be subdivided into categories using the country they are affiliated with:
- Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
: six entities
- Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
: eleven entities
- China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
: two entities
- Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
: two entities
- France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
: eight entities
- Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
: three entities
- New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
: three entities
- Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
: three entities
- United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
: seventeen entities
- United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
: fourteen entities
Miscellaneous: This category is for
Antarctica and places in dispute. There are
six entities.
Other entities: This category is for the
WorldEarth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
and the
oceanAn ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
s. There are
five oceans and the World (the World entry is intended as a summary of the other entries).
Political
Areas not covered
- Specific regions within a country or areas in dispute among countries, such as Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
, are not covered, but other areas of the world whose status is disputed, such as the Spratly IslandsThe Spratly Islands are a group of more than 750 reefs, islets, atolls, cays and islands in the South China Sea. The archipelago lies off the coasts of the Philippines and Malaysia , about one third of the way from there to southern Vietnam. They comprise less than four square kilometers of land...
, have entries. Subnational areas of countries (such as US StatesA U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
or the Canadian provinces and territoriesThe provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three 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. This criterion was invoked in the 2007 and 2011 editions with the decision to drop the entries for French GuianaFrench Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
, GuadeloupeGuadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
, MartiniqueMartinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
, MayotteMayotte is an overseas department and region of France consisting of a main island, Grande-Terre , a smaller island, Petite-Terre , and several islets around these two. The archipelago is located in the northern Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean, namely between northwestern Madagascar and...
, and ReunionRéunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
. They were dropped because besides being overseas departments, they were now overseas regions, and an integral part of France.
Kashmir
- Maps depicting Kashmir have the India–Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
border drawn at the Line of ControlThe term Line of Control refers to the military control line between the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir—a line which, to this day, does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary but is the de facto border...
, but the region of Kashmir administered by ChinaAksai Chin is one of the two main disputed border areas between China and India, and the other is South Tibet, which comprises most of India's Arunachal Pradesh. It is administered by China as part of Hotan County in the Hotan Prefecture of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, but is also claimed by India...
drawn in hash marks.
Northern Cyprus
- Northern Cyprus
Northern Cyprus or North Cyprus , officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus , is a self-declared state that comprises the northeastern part of the island of 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."
Taiwan/Republic of China
- The name "Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
" is not listed as Taiwan's "official name" under the "Government" section, due to U.S. acknowledgement of Beijing's One-China policyThe One-China policy refers to the policy or view that there is only one state called "China", despite the existence of two governments that claim to be "China"....
according to which there is one China and Taiwan is a part of it. The name "Republic of China" was briefly added on January 27, 2005, but has since been changed back to "none". The map of the People's Republic of China on the World Factbook shows Taiwan included on the map of China. (See also: Political status of TaiwanThe controversy regarding the political status of Taiwan hinges on whether Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu should remain effectively independent as territory of the Republic of China , become unified with the territories now governed by the People's Republic of China , or formally declare...
, Legal status of TaiwanThe legal status of Republic of China is a controversial issue which stems from the complex post-Second World War history of Taiwan. Various claims have been made by the People's Republic of China , the Republic of China , and supporters of Taiwan independence over this question, with a variety of...
)
Burma/Myanmar
- The U.S. does not recognize the renaming of Burma
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
by its ruling military junta to Myanmar and thus keeps its entry for the country under "Burma". This is done because the name change "was not approved by any sitting legislature in Burma". As a result, the US government has never adopted the name Myanmar.
Macedonia
- The Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
is entered as Macedonia, the name used in its first entry in the Factbook upon independence in 1992. In the 1994 edition, the name of the entry was changed to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as a result of the Macedonia naming disputeA diplomatic dispute over the use of the name Macedonia has been an ongoing issue in the bilateral relations between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia since the latter became independent from former Yugoslavia in 1991...
with GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, which objected to the use of the name "Macedonia". For the next decade, this was the name the nation was listed under. Finally, in the 2004 edition of the Factbook, the name of the entry was changed back to Macedonia following a November 2004 US decision to refer to the country using this name.
European Union
- On December 16, 2004, the CIA added an entry for the European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
(EU). (Before this date, the EU was excluded from the Factbook.) According to the CIA, the European Union was added because the EU "continues to accrue more nation-like characteristics for itself".
United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges and Iles Eparses
- In the 2006 edition of The World Factbook, the entries for Baker Island
Baker Island is an uninhabited atoll located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia, and is a possession of the United States. Its nearest neighbor is Howland Island, to the north.Located at...
, Howland IslandHowland Island is an uninhabited coral island located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia and is an unincorporated, unorganized territory of the United States. Geographically, it is part...
, Jarvis IslandJarvis Island is an uninhabited 4.5 square kilometer coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean at , about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands...
, Kingman ReefKingman Reef is a largely submerged, uninhabited triangular shaped reef, east-west and north-south, located in the North Pacific Ocean, roughly half way between the Hawaiian Islands and American Samoa at...
, Johnston AtollJohnston Atoll is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean about west of Hawaii. There are four islands located on the coral reef platform, two natural islands, Johnston Island and Sand Island, which have been expanded by coral dredging, as well as North Island and East Island , an additional two...
, Palmyra AtollPalmyra Atoll is an essentially unoccupied equatorial Northern Pacific atoll administered as an unorganized incorporated territory by the United States federal government...
and the Midway IslandsMidway Atoll is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago, about one-third of the way between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Tokyo, Japan. Unique among the Hawaiian islands, Midway observes UTC-11 , eleven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time and one hour...
were merged into a new United States Pacific Island Wildlife RefugesThe Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument is a group of unorganized, mostly unincorporated United States Pacific Island territories managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States Department of the Interior. These remote refuges are "the most widespread collection of marine-...
entry. The old entries for each individual insular area remain as redirects on the Factbook website. On September 7, 2006, the CIA also merged the entries for Bassas da IndiaBassas da India is part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. It is an uninhabited, roughly circular atoll about in diameter, which corresponds to a total size of . It is located in the southern Mozambique Channel, about half-way between Madagascar and Mozambique, and northwest of...
, Europa IslandEuropa Island is a 28 km² low-lying tropical island in the Mozambique Channel, about a third of the way from southern Madagascar to southern Mozambique, at . It has 22.2 kilometres of coastline, but no ports or harbours. Anchorage is possible offshore...
, the Glorioso IslandsThe Glorieuses or Glorioso Islands are a group of French islands and rocks totalling , at , in the northern Mozambique channel, about northwest of Madagascar. The Glorieuses have an Exclusive Economic Zone of...
, Juan de Nova IslandJuan de Nova Island is a low, flat, tropical island in the narrowest part of the Mozambique Channel, about one-third of the way between Madagascar and Mozambique at...
, and Tromelin IslandTromelin Island is a low, flat 0.8-square-kilometre island in the Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar . There are no harbours or anchorages and access by sea is difficult. The island has a 1,200-metre airstrip. It is a French territory...
into a new Iles Eparses entry. As with the new United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges entry, the old entries for these five islands remained as redirects on the website. On July 19, 2007, the Iles Eparses entry and redirects for each island were dropped due to the group becoming a district of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands in February.
Serbia and Montenegro/Yugoslavia
- The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
(SFRY) broke apart in 1991. The following year, it was replaced in the Factbook with entries for each of its former constituent republics. 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. This was done in accordance with a May 21, 1992, decision by the U.S. not to recognize any of the former Yugoslav republics 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." Montenegro and Serbia were treated separately in the Factbook data, as can be seen on the map. In October 2000, Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
was forced out of office after a disputed election. This event led to democratic elections and U.S. diplomatic recognition. The 2001 edition of the Factbook thus referred to the state as Yugoslavia. On March 14, 2002, an agreement was signed to transform the FRY into a loose state union called Serbia and MontenegroSerbia and Montenegro was a country in southeastern Europe, formed from two former republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia : Serbia and Montenegro. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, it was established in 1992 as a federation called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
; it took effect on February 4, 2003. The name of the Yugoslavia entity was altered in the Factbook the month after the change.
Kosovo
- On February 28, 2008, the CIA added an entry for Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
; before this, Kosovo was excluded in the Factbook. The Kosovo declaration of independence is supportedKosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia was enacted on Sunday, 17 February 2008 by the Assembly of Kosovo with a unanimous quorum. All 11 representatives of the Serb minority boycotted the proceedings...
by the majority of EU member states, but disputed by SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, which continues to regard Kosovo as its own territory, and most other countries.
East Timor/Timor-Leste
- On July 19, 2007, the entry for East Timor was renamed Timor-Leste following a decision of the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN).
Factual
In June 2009, the US National Public Radio (NPR), relying on information obtained from the CIA 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 DepartmentThe United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
and Israeli sources put the figure at about 500,000. NPR then issued a correction. Chuck Holmes, foreign editor for NPR Digitial, 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.”
Geographical information about countries in the CIA Factbook may not quite tally with information from Government sources in those countries. For example, the Factbook gives the land area of Australia as 7,682,300 km
2 while Geoscience Australia gives the area as 7,692,024 km
2, a difference of 9,724 km
2. A Fiji Government website gives the land area of the Fiji Islands as 18,333 km
2 while the CIA Factbook gives the area as 18,274 km
2 a difference of 59 km
2.
Before 1998, the United Kingdom profile contained a sentence that asserted the UK had gained independence on 1 January 1801. This description in reference to the Act of Union 1801 which expanded the United Kingdom of Great Britain to include Ireland, has since been greatly expanded, although the primary date of UK Independence is now given as 1927. This has been argued by some as misleading, and refers to the date the entity adopted its current name under the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act, of that year. Indeed it can be argued the country has never been independent since there is an arguable legitimate succession of states, systems and entities from the Norman Conquest, 1066. It can also be argued that the United Kingdom has been independent since 410 CE, the year that the Romans left
Roman BritainRoman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
.
ISBNs
This is a list of International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) for the Government edition 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.
Government editions:
- 2000: ISBN 0-16-061343-4
- 2001: ISBN 0-16-066404-7
- 2002: ISBN 0-16-067601-0
- 2003: ISBN 0-16-067943-5
- 2004: ISBN 0-16-073030-9
- 2005: ISBN 0-16-074941-7
- 2006: ISBN 0-16-076547-1
- 2007: ISBN 9780160785801
- 2008: ISBN 9780160829697
- 2009: ISBN 9780160845871
- 2010: ISBN 9780160864629
Potomac Books reprints:
- 2000 (1999): ISBN 157488266X
- 2001 (2000): ISBN 1574883461
- 2002 (2001): ISBN 1574884751
- 2003 (2002): ISBN 157488641X
- 2004 (2003): ISBN 1574888374
- 2005 (2004): ISBN 1574889427
- 2006 (2005): ISBN 1574889974
- 2007 (2006): ISBN 159797109X
- 2008 (2007): ISBN 1597971820
- 2009 (2008): ISBN 1597974145
- 2010 (2009): ISBN 9781597975414
- 2011 (2010): ISBN 9781597977630
Skyhorse Publishing reprints:
- 2008 (2007): ISBN 978-1-60239-080-5
- 2009 (2008): ISBN 978-1602392823
- 2010 (2009): ISBN 9781602397279
- 2011 (2010): ISBN 978-1616080471
See also
- World Leaders, another regular publication of the CIA
Alternative publications
- Europa World Year Book
The Europa World Year Book, is a publication of the information issued in Great Britain from 1926 to 1988 under title "The Europa Year Book: a World Survey".In the opinion of many is regarded as fundamental to its publication in the field worldwide...
- The New York Times Almanac
The New York Times Almanac is an almanac published in the United States. The first edition, published in late 1997, was the 1998 New York Times Almanac. It is published by Penguin Group....
- The World Almanac and Book of Facts
- TIME Almanac with Information Please
TIME Almanac with Information Please is an almanac published in the United States. The almanac was first published in 1947 as the Information Please Almanac by Dan Golenpaul...
- Whitaker's Almanack
Whitaker's Almanack is a reference book, published annually in the United Kingdom. The book was originally published by J Whitaker & Sons from 1868 to 1997, then by The Stationery Office, from 2003 to 2010 by A & C Black and from 2011 by .-Content:...
External links
Mobile versions of the Factbook
The Factbook by year
- 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008