CIA World Factbook
The CIA World Factbook is a standardized collection of country-level data.
Contents
Description
The factbook collects country-level information, such as demographics, from a wide variety of sources including but not limited to U.S. intelligence agencies.
It is designed for consumption and use by the U.S. government, and as such it reflects their public policies. For example, certain governments are not officially recognized, so are not covered.
Geographies
The factbook defines the following world regions:
Africa
Europe
France **
Georgia *
Netherlands **
Russia *
Turkey *
* indicates that the state is double-counted as Europe and Asia
** indicates that the state is considered to consist of multiple countries
Asia
* indicates that the state is double-counted as Europe and Asia
North America
Oceania
South America
History
The factbook started as a classified document in 1962. It has been public since 1975.