What's the World Factbook?
The World Factbook [1][2] published by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) offers free country profiles in the public domain (that is, no copyright(s), no rights reserved, no license).
Note: All country profiles use the original / official two-letter GEC (formerly FIPS) codes and NOT the ISO codes (you
might be used to) e.g. au.json for Austria (and NOT at.json), gm.json for Germany (and NOT de.json), and so on.
For a little background on this factbook project from the humble author, see the all-in-one page talk slides / notes titled Turn the World Factbook into Open (Structured) Data.
Find some more notes on query examples (and import instructions) for MongoDB from another talk. Happy exploring the world with JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) datasets / documents.
Q: Thanks for this fantastic work! Do you know any open source REST HTTP API for the World Factbook?
A: Not sure I understand your question ;-). factbook.json is a REST HTTP API for the World Factbook.
For example, to request the country profile (data) for Germany (gm) using the REST HTTP API ( - no API key required ;-) - ) try https://github.com/factbook/factbook.json/raw/master/europe/gm.json and so on.
A: The factbook has many more entities / countries than ISO and sometimes with a different definition - it's NOT an easy 1:1 mapping, see Cross-Reference List of Country Data Codes.
Q: I noticed that you've got Zambian data under ZA for the African region... It should be South African data...
A: See why not ISO codes - Uhhh... nevermind, I see it's stored under SF. Weird, but, ok :)
A: Since August 2021 the datasets get auto-updated using / fetching the original
online CIA World Factbook country profile datsets (cached in cache.factbook.json) weekly, that is,
every Thursday. See the GitHub Actions log for details.
Q: The World Factbook front-page says "for 266 world entities" - but here I find only 260 (thus, 6 entities short)? What's the story?
The World Factbook provides basic intelligence on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, terrorism, and transnational issues for 266 world entities.
(Source:
cia.gov/the-world-factbook)
A: Since March 2006
the United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges (um)
country profile consolidates
seven profiles into a single new one
(but keeps entities count as before):
- Baker Island (
fq) - Howland Island (
hq) - Jarvis Island (
dq) - Johnston Atoll (
jq) - Kingman Reef (
kq) - Midway Islands (
mq) - Palmyra Atoll (
lq)
A: In December 2020 the World Factbook dropped coverage of the Western Sahara (wi). Why?
In a deal with Morocco the United States recognizes the claim
of Marocco over the Western Sahara and in return
Morocco starts official diplomatic relations with Israel.
Code, Name, Category, Region
wi, Western Sahara, Miscellaneous, Africa
Europe/Austria - au.json:
{
"Introduction": {
"Background": {
"text": "Once the center of power for the large Austro-Hungarian Empire,
Austria was reduced to a small republic after its defeat in World War..."
}
},
"Geography": {
"Location": {
"text": "Central Europe, north of Italy and Slovenia"
},
"Geographic coordinates": {
"text": "47 20 N, 13 20 E"
},
"Map references": {
"text": "Europe"
},
"Area": {
"total": {
"text": "83,871 sq km"
},
"land": {
"text": "82,445 sq km"
},
"water": {
"text": "1,426 sq km"
}
},
"Area - comparative": {
"text": "about the size of South Carolina...",
},
"Land boundaries": {
"total": {
"text": "2,524 km"
},
"border countries": {
"text": "Czech Republic 402 km, Germany 801 km, Hungary 321 km, Italy 404 km,
Liechtenstein 34 km, Slovakia 105 km, Slovenia 299 km, Switzerland 158 km"
}
},
"Climate": {
"text": "temperate; continental, cloudy; cold winters with frequent rain and
some snow in lowlands and snow in mountains;
moderate summers with occasional showers"
},
"Elevation": {
"lowest point": {
"text": "Neusiedler See 115 m"
},
"highest point": {
"text": "Grossglockner 3,798 m"
}
},
"Natural resources": {
"text": "oil, coal, lignite, timber, iron ore, copper, zinc, antimony,
magnesite, tungsten, graphite, salt, hydropower"
},
...
}The World Factbook includes 266 260 entries -
195 sovereign countries /
2 others /
58 52 dependencies /
5 miscellaneous /
5 oceans /
1 world:
A
af Afghanistan
al Albania
ag Algeria
an Andorra
ao Angola
ac Antigua and Barbuda
ar Argentina
am Armenia
as Australia
au Austria
aj Azerbaijan
B
bf The Bahamas
ba Bahrain
bg Bangladesh
bb Barbados
bo Belarus
be Belgium
bh Belize
bn Benin
bt Bhutan
bl Bolivia
bk Bosnia and Herzegovina
bc Botswana
br Brazil
bx Brunei
bu Bulgaria
uv Burkina Faso
bm Burma
by Burundi
C
cb Cambodia
cm Cameroon
ca Canada
cv Cape Verde
ct Central African Republic
cd Chad
ci Chile
ch China
co Colombia
cn Comoros
cg Congo DR
cf Congo
cs Costa Rica
iv Cote d'Ivoire
hr Croatia
cu Cuba
cy Cyprus
ez Czechia
D
da Denmark
dj Djibouti
do Dominica
dr Dominican Republic
E
ec Ecuador
eg Egypt
es El Salvador
ek Equatorial Guinea
er Eritrea
en Estonia
wz Eswatini
et Ethiopia
F
fj Fiji
fi Finland
fr France
G
gb Gabon
ga The Gambia
gg Georgia
gm Germany
gh Ghana
gr Greece
gj Grenada
gt Guatemala
gv Guinea
pu Guinea-Bissau
gy Guyana
H
ha Haiti
ho Honduras
hu Hungary
I
ic Iceland
in India
id Indonesia
ir Iran
iz Iraq
ei Ireland
is Israel
it Italy
J
jm Jamaica
ja Japan
jo Jordan
K
kz Kazakhstan
ke Kenya
kr Kiribati
kn North Korea
ks South Korea
kv Kosovo
ku Kuwait
kg Kyrgyzstan
L
la Laos
lg Latvia
le Lebanon
lt Lesotho
li Liberia
ly Libya
ls Liechtenstein
lh Lithuania
lu Luxembourg
M
ma Madagascar
mi Malawi
my Malaysia
mv Maldives
ml Mali
mt Malta
rm Marshall Islands
mr Mauritania
mp Mauritius
mx Mexico
fm Micronesia
md Moldova
mn Monaco
mg Mongolia
mj Montenegro
mo Morocco
mz Mozambique
N
wa Namibia
nr Nauru
np Nepal
nl Netherlands
nz New Zealand
nu Nicaragua
ng Niger
ni Nigeria
no Norway
mk North Macedonia
O
mu Oman
P
pk Pakistan
ps Palau
pm Panama
pp Papua New Guinea
pa Paraguay
pe Peru
rp Philippines
pl Poland
po Portugal
Q
qa Qatar
R
ro Romania
rs Russia
rw Rwanda
S
sc Saint Kitts and Nevis
st Saint Lucia
vc Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
ws Samoa
sm San Marino
tp Sao Tome and Principe
sa Saudi Arabia
sg Senegal
ri Serbia
se Seychelles
sl Sierra Leone
sn Singapore
lo Slovakia
si Slovenia
bp Solomon Islands
so Somalia
sf South Africa
od South Sudan
sp Spain
ce Sri Lanka
su Sudan
ns Suriname
sw Sweden
sz Switzerland
sy Syria
T
ti Tajikistan
tz Tanzania
th Thailand
tt Timor-Leste
to Togo
tn Tonga
td Trinidad and Tobago
ts Tunisia
tu Turkey
tx Turkmenistan
tv Tuvalu
U
ug Uganda
up Ukraine
ae United Arab Emirates
uk United Kingdom
us United States
uy Uruguay
uz Uzbekistan
V
nh Vanuatu
vt Vatican City (Holy See)
ve Venezuela
vm Vietnam
Y
ym Yemen
Z
za Zambia
zi Zimbabwe
tw Taiwan
ee European Union
Australia (6):
at Ashmore and Cartier Islands
kt Christmas Island
ck Cocos (Keeling) Islands
cr Coral Sea Islands
hm Heard Island and McDonald Islands
nf Norfolk Island
China (2):
hk Hong Kong
mc Macau
Denmark (2):
fo Faroe Islands
gl Greenland
France (8):
ip Clipperton Island
fp French Polynesia
fs French Southern and Antarctic Lands
nc New Caledonia
tb Saint Barthelemy
rn Saint Martin
sb Saint Pierre and Miquelon
wf Wallis and Futuna
Netherlands (3):
aa Aruba
uc Curacao
nn Sint Maarten
New Zealand (3):
cw Cook Islands
ne Niue
tl Tokelau
Norway (3):
bv Bouvet Island
jn Jan Mayen
sv Svalbard
United Kingdom (17):
ax Akrotiri (Sovereign Base)
av Anguilla
bd Bermuda
io British Indian Ocean Territory
vi British Virgin Islands
cj Cayman Islands
dx Dhekelia (Sovereign Base)
fk Falkland Islands
gi Gibraltar
gk Guernsey
je Jersey
im Isle of Man
mh Montserrat
pc Pitcairn Islands
sh Saint Helena
sx South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
tk Turks and Caicos Islands
United States (14 8):
aq American Samoa
gq Guam
bq Navassa Island
cq Northern Mariana Islands
rq Puerto Rico
vq US Virgin Islands
wq Wake Island
um US Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
(Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Islands, Palmyra Atoll)
ay Antarctica
gz Gaza Strip
pf Paracel Islands
pg Spratly Islands
we West Bank
wi Western Sahara
xq Arctic Ocean
zh Atlantic Ocean
xo Indian Ocean
zn Pacific Ocean
oo Southern Ocean
xx World
See the factbook
command line tool and scripts for details.
Q: Anybody using these datasets? I don't know really. Add your project here - yes, you can!
Thomas Derflinger writes:
I used your JSON data files to import them into a Mongo database. Then I used Apollo to set up a GraphQL API in front of it. Using the project chi-country-facts (https://github.com/tderflinger/chi-country-facts) you can query World Factbook data comfortably using GraphQL (there also exists a web GraphQL playground). This enables easy data querying and extraction.
Another project of mine is Visual World Facts (https://visual-world-facts.pages.dev), where I try to visualize the World Factbook data in new ways. For example, I visualized the GDP by PPP of world countries with a treemap, which can lead to new insights.
The datasets and scripts are dedicated to the public domain. Use it as you please with no restrictions whatsoever.
Send them along to the Open World Database (world.db) and Friends Forum/Mailing List. Thanks!