The World Factbook

The World Factbook, also known as the CIA World Factbook, was a reference resource produced and published by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1962 to 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 website, 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, including US-recognized countries, dependencies, and other areas in the world.

The World Factbook was prepared by the CIA for the use of US government officials, and its style, format, coverage, and content were primarily designed to meet their requirements. As a work of the US government, it is in the public domain in the United States. It has frequently been used as a resource for academic research papers and news articles.

On February 4, 2026, following the restriction and closure since 2025 of other government-funded information websites, the CIA announced, with no warning and no explanation, that The World Factbook was discontinued. The Factbook is still accessible via archives by the Internet Archive, Mozilla Data Collective, and Factbook Archive. A group of volunteers subsequently launched OpenFactBook, a community-run successor website with much of the same underlying information as The World Factbook.