About This Project
Preserving the world's most comprehensive country reference
What is the World Factbook?
The World Factbook was a comprehensive reference resource published by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that provided information on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, environment, communications, transportation, military, terrorism, and transnational issues for 266 world entities.
First published under this title in 1981, the Factbook was made available to the public in the mid-1970s and was published annually through 2024. On February 4, 2026, the CIA discontinued the World Factbook, removing all editions from its website.
Because all World Factbook data was published in the public domain (no copyright, no rights reserved), this project preserves and enhances that data for continued public access.
This Project
This is an open-source continuation of the World Factbook with enhanced features including:
Data Sources
Structured JSON country profiles for editions 2020-2024. Machine-readable format maintained by the open-source community.
Visit sourcePlain-text editions from 1990, 2000, 2005, and 2010. Digitized from official CIA publications and freely available.
Visit sourceArchived HTML snapshots of the CIA Factbook website for editions 2015, 2018, and 2019. Preserved via web crawls.
Visit sourceCountry flag images and reference maps from the factbook/media repository. SVG and PNG formats.
Visit sourceThe original source of all data. Published annually by the Central Intelligence Agency from 1981 to 2024.
Visit sourceComplementary economic and development indicators used for cross-referencing and data validation.
Visit sourceDigitized editions of the CIA World Factbook preserved by a partnership of academic and research institutions. Full-text searchable archive.
Visit sourceEdition History
This application contains data from 45 editions spanning 1981–2025, totaling 1,622,323 data records.
| Year | Source | Countries | Records |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | CIA World Factbook 1981 (Internet Archive) | 133 | 7,952 |
| 1982 | CIA World Factbook 1982 (Wikisource) | 186 | 7,791 |
| 1983 | CIA World Factbook 1983 (Internet Archive) | 143 | 8,267 |
| 1984 | CIA World Factbook 1984 (Internet Archive) | 143 | 8,267 |
| 1985 | CIA World Factbook 1985 (Internet Archive) | 142 | 8,230 |
| 1986 | CIA World Factbook 1986 (Internet Archive) | 151 | 9,164 |
| 1987 | CIA World Factbook 1987 (Internet Archive) | 188 | 10,949 |
| 1988 | CIA World Factbook 1988 (Internet Archive) | 152 | 10,960 |
| 1989 | CIA World Factbook 1989 (Internet Archive) | 182 | 15,825 |
| 1990 | CIA World Factbook 1990 (Project Gutenberg) | 225 | 15,148 |
| 1991 | CIA World Factbook 1991 (Project Gutenberg) | 238 | 15,466 |
| 1992 | CIA World Factbook 1992 (Project Gutenberg) | 255 | 17,805 |
| 1993 | CIA World Factbook 1993 (Project Gutenberg) | 255 | 18,620 |
| 1994 | CIA World Factbook 1994 (Project Gutenberg) | 248 | 17,986 |
| 1995 | CIA World Factbook 1995 (Project Gutenberg) | 258 | 19,348 |
| 1996 | CIA World Factbook 1996 (Project Gutenberg) | 256 | 32,906 |
| 1997 | CIA World Factbook 1997 (Project Gutenberg) | 57 | 4,805 |
| 1998 | CIA World Factbook 1998 (Internet Archive) | 260 | 21,697 |
| 1999 | CIA World Factbook 1999 (Internet Archive) | 260 | 23,349 |
| 2000 | CIA World Factbook 2000 (Project Gutenberg) | 237 | 33,395 |
| 2001 | CIA World Factbook 2001 (Project Gutenberg) | 162 | 16,778 |
| 2002 | CIA World Factbook 2002 (Project Gutenberg) | 50 | 5,266 |
| 2003 | CIA World Factbook 2003 (Project Gutenberg) | 258 | 40,932 |
| 2004 | CIA World Factbook 2004 (Project Gutenberg) | 31 | 4,701 |
| 2005 | CIA World Factbook 2005 (Project Gutenberg) | 252 | 39,245 |
| 2006 | CIA World Factbook 2006 (Project Gutenberg) | 63 | 10,261 |
| 2007 | CIA World Factbook 2007 (Project Gutenberg) | 253 | 43,735 |
| 2008 | CIA World Factbook 2008 (Project Gutenberg) | 256 | 33,041 |
| 2009 | CIA World Factbook 2009 (Project Gutenberg) | 127 | 15,230 |
| 2010 | CIA World Factbook 2010 (Project Gutenberg) | 258 | 42,922 |
| 2011 | CIA World Factbook 2011 Archive (HTML) | 262 | 58,325 |
| 2012 | CIA World Factbook 2012 Archive (HTML) | 262 | 59,234 |
| 2013 | CIA World Factbook 2013 Archive (HTML) | 267 | 65,188 |
| 2014 | CIA World Factbook 2014 Archive (HTML) | 267 | 65,382 |
| 2015 | CIA World Factbook 2015 Archive (Wayback Machine ZIP) | 266 | 69,900 |
| 2016 | CIA World Factbook 2016 Archive (HTML) | 268 | 71,560 |
| 2017 | CIA World Factbook 2017 Archive (HTML) | 268 | 71,914 |
| 2018 | CIA World Factbook 2018 Archive (Wayback Machine) | 268 | 69,324 |
| 2019 | CIA World Factbook 2019 Archive (Wayback Machine) | 267 | 66,981 |
| 2020 | factbook.json (GitHub) | 261 | 66,931 |
| 2021 | CIA World Factbook 2021 (factbook.json @ e0d5604b9e27) | 236 | 70,075 |
| 2022 | CIA World Factbook 2022 (factbook.json @ 61dadec0c9c9) | 257 | 80,824 |
| 2023 | CIA World Factbook 2023 (factbook.json @ 0d4fa4984ecb) | 257 | 79,657 |
| 2024 | CIA World Factbook 2024 (factbook.json @ b8538d78e87c) | 257 | 77,834 |
| 2025 Primary | Edition Builder | 267 | 89,153 |
| Total | 277 | 1,622,323 | |
Technology Stack
Quick Links
License & Attribution
All World Factbook data is in the public domain. There are no copyright restrictions, no rights reserved, and no license required. You are free to use, modify, and distribute this data for any purpose without attribution (though attribution is appreciated).
Public Domain — As a work of the U.S. Government, the World Factbook is not subject to copyright protection under 17 U.S.C. § 105. This project preserves that public domain status for all original CIA data.