The World Factbook
|
The World Factbook 2006 cover |
The World Factbook is an annual publication by the
Central Intelligence Agency of the
United States with basic
almanac-style information about the various
countries of the world. The factbook gives a two- to three-page summary of the
demographics, location,
telecommunications capacity,
government,
industry,
military capability,
etc, of all
U.S.-recognized countries and territories in the world.
As
The World Factbook is prepared by the CIA for the use of
U.S. government officials, the style, format, coverage and content are primarily designed to meet their specific requirements. However, it is frequently used as a resource for student papers, web sites and various non-governmental publications. As a
work of the U.S. government, it is considered to be in the
public domain (see copyright status below).
Information is provided by:
*
Antarctic Information Program (
National Science Foundation),
*
Bureau of the Census (
Department of Commerce),
*
Bureau of Labor Statistics (
Department of Labor),
*
Central Intelligence Agency,
*
Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs,
*
Defense Intelligence Agency (
Department of Defense),
*
US Department of State,
*
US Fish and Wildlife Service (
Department of the Interior),
*
US Maritime Administration (
Department of Transportation),
*
National Imagery and Mapping 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),
*
United States Board on Geographic Names (
Department of the Interior), and
* other public and private sources.
 |
The World Factbook website as it appeared in February and March 2005 |
Because the
Factbook is in the
public domain, people are free to redistribute and modify it in any way they like, without permission of the CIA.
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:
Federal law prohibits use of the words "Central Intelligence Agency," the initials "CIA," the seal of the Central Intelligence Agency, or any colorable imitation of such words, initials, or seal in connection with any merchandise, impersonation, solicitation, or commercial activity in a manner reasonably calculated to convey the impression that such use is approved, endorsed, or authorized by the Central Intelligence Agency. [https://www.cia.gov/cia/notices.html#seal Use of the Central Intelligence Agency Seal]
Many Internet sites have used information and images from the CIA
World Factbook, because of its public domain status.
Political
As an official publication of the United States government, the factbook lists the official policy of the United States government as fact often with little more than a footnote to indicate that the fact is disputed or that a contrary position exists. The factbook often highlights diplomatic disputes that are recognized by the United States, but ignores or downplays disputes that are not favored by the government's foreign policies. For example:
*Specific regions within a country or areas in dispute among countries, such as
Kurdistan,
Kashmir and
Kosovo, are not covered, but other areas of the world whose status is disputed, such as the
Spratly Islands, have entries.
*Maps depicting Kashmir have the
India–
Pakistan border drawn at the
Line of Control, but the region of Kashmir occupied by China drawn in hash marks.
*
Northern Cyprus is not given a separate entry or listed as part of
Turkey because "territorial occupations/annexations not recognized by the United States Government are not shown on U.S. Government maps."
*
Taiwan has a separate entry not listed under "T", but at the bottom of the list. [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/countrylisting.html#z] The name
"Republic of China" is not listed as Taiwan's "official name" under the "Government" section, perhaps due to U.S. recognition of Beijing's
One-China Policy according to which the Republic of China is a defunct entity having been replaced by the
People's Republic of China. The name "Republic of China" was briefly added on
January 27,
2005 [
1] but changed back to "none" on
February 10,
2005. [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/tw.html#Govt]. (See also:
Political status of Taiwan,
Legal status of Taiwan)
*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 "Burma".
*: Note: since 1989 the military authorities in Burma have promoted the name Myanmar as the international 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 from the local short-form name Myanma Naingngandaw. [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/bm.html#Govt]
*The
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is entered under "Macedonia,"[https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mk.html] despite the fact that no international organisations such as the
United Nations, the
European Union,
NATO, the
European Broadcasting Union, and the
International Olympic Committee use this short form, which can cause confusion with the wider
geographical region of Macedonia (See also
the article about the naming issue of Macedonia.)
*On
December 16,
2004, the CIA added an entry for the
European Union. [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ee.html] According to the CIA, the European Union was added because the EU "continues to accrue more nation-like characteristics for itself". Their reasoning was explained in this small statement in the introduction:
*
The evolution of the European Union (EU) from a regional economic agreement among six neighboring states in 1951 to today's supranational organization of 25 countries across the European continent stands as an unprecedented phenomenon in the annals of history. Dynastic unions for territorial consolidation were long the norm in Europe. On a few occasions even country-level unions were arranged - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were examples - but for such a large number of nation-states to cede some of their sovereignty to an overarching entity is truly unique. Although the EU is not a federation in the strict sense, it is far more than a free-trade association such as ASEAN, NAFTA, or Mercosur, and it has many of the attributes associated with independent nations: its own flag, anthem, founding date, and currency, as well as an incipient common foreign and security policy in its dealings with other nations. In the future, many of these nation-like characteristics are likely to be expanded. Thus, inclusion of basic intelligence on the EU has been deemed appropriate as a new, separate entity in The World Factbook. However, because of the EU's special status, this description is placed after the regular country entries.*On
January 10,
2006, the CIA changed the name of the "
Man, Isle of" entry to "
Isle of Man" [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/im.html]. The difference in the name of the entry can be seen in the
2002 edition of the Factbook.
*Electoral regimes are depicted from a purely technical point of view without regard to usual (American) appreciation of the degree of liberty in any country. For example, the
China pages lists "elections: president and vice president elected by the National People's Congress for five-year terms; elections last held 15-17 March 2003 (next to be held mid-March 2008)..." while the
Canada page lists "elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary; governor general appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister for a five-year term...". Also, each government is described according to the American model, consisting of an executive, legislative and judicial branch. However in many countries the "executive" leader is a powerless figurehead, for example the
President of Ireland.
Factual
Controversy about the Factbook arose in
1998 when
British journalists noticed the U.K. section contained some oddities - most notably the line
"Independence: 1 January 1801 (United Kingdom established)". [
2] By
2005 this terse, confusing description had been greatly expanded. [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uk.html#Govt]
Geography
Although great care is given to representing the borders of countries factually, the choice of cities represented on the map seems sometimes idiosynchratic. For example, the overall map of the United Kingdom lists the town of
Grangemouth in
Scotland, although it is only a small town (population 18,500) and in no way a major city (this is perhaps due to its status as a major centre of the oil industry in Scotland after
Aberdeen. It is also part of the
Falkirk urban area which, with a population of around 90,000 and with the larger
Falkirk Council Area having a
population density of 496/km², is one of the most populous and most densely inhabited urban centres after the conurbations of
greater Glasgow and
Edinburgh and the cities of
Dundee and Aberdeen. Although it would still be an anomaly to refer to this area as "Grangemouth" rather than "Falkirk", the principal
burgh in the district).
The map of Sweden at one time included
Tärnaby with 500 inhabitants, a town basically unknown except for a few notable natives. ([https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/maps/sw-map.gif map])
The map of the United States contains
Prudhoe Bay,
Alaska, the only city noted in the state other than
Anchorage. Despite being an oil field town with several thousand temporary workers at any given time, the town has a permanent population of only five residents according to the
2000 census.
House style
The factbook uses standard
American English, even for the proper names of non-US political parties. [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/docs/faqs.html#Spelling] As a consequence, Britain's
Labour Party is spelled "Labor". The Factbook's house style for spelling defers to the
United States Board on Geographic Names and the
CIA itself; as a consequence the head of
Al-Qaeda is referred to as
Bin Ladin [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/af.html] and the ruler of
Libya is referred to as
Qadhafi. [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/ly.html]
Despite the aforementioned quirks and anomalies in the factbook, it remains a quite accurate source of geographical and political information used by a variety of sources outside the CIA.
* Besides the
World Factbook, the CIA also puts out a directory of
Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments each week.
*
Abbreviations used in CIA World Factbook* [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html Current CIA World Factbook]
* UMSL archive:
1990,
1991,
1992,
1993,
1994,
1995,
1996,
1997,
1998,
1999,
2000,
2001,
2002,
2003,
2004,
2005,
2006* GPO archive:
1990,
1991,
1992,
1993,
1994,
1995,
1996,
1997,
1998,
1999,
2000,
2001,
2002,
2003,
2004,
2005*
Nationmaster.com Allows the user to create graphs and charts with CIA, UN and OECD data.
*
Google Earth Factbook The Factbook as Google Earth placemarks
*
2004 CIA World Factbook for
Pocket PC and
Palm OS devices
*
Authorama 2000 CIA World Factbook as XHTML1.0 (easily readable, no images, device-independent)
