You may or may not have ever realized it, but for more than six decades, the CIA published an incredible resource called The World Factbook. It was a free reference guide to all the countries on Earth, along with several non-state entities such as the European Union, and it was filled with all sorts of eye-opening info.
You might’ve noticed I’m referring to it in the past tense. That’s because after having maintained this project since 1962—first as a printed book and then in more recent years online—the CIA unceremoniously discontinued and deleted The World Factbook earlier this year.
But, as so often happens, the internet has come to the rescue. And now this one-of-a-kind resource and all the wisdom within it is available for anyone to tap into again.
This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures!
Your free global field guide
On February 4, the CIA announced it was shutting down The World Factbook once and for all. Every single page was deleted simultaneously.
That’s the bad news. The good news: Someone’s already brought it back, and it’s available once more as a free online resource.
➜ The new version is called OpenFactBook. It’s a community-maintained successor to the original from the CIA.
⌚ You can start browsing it right now, in a matter of seconds.
✅ The simplest way to use OpenFactBook is to pick a country and dive in. Every page starts with a few key statistics, a map, and a brief history. Then, you’ll find a plethora of revealing statistics.
🧠 Part of the fun is discovering cool or unusual stats. For example: The highest elevation in Vatican City is the Vatican Gardens, which is 78 meters above sea level. The lowest: Saint Peter’s Square, at 19 meters. They use 0% of their land for agriculture.
But there’s so much more here than unexpected stats about microstates.
💡 One feature I love is the Compare Countries tool, found in the top menu bar. You can use it to see a quick breakdown of multiple countries, which is great when you’re trying to get a feel for something like the relative size, population, or standard of living between different places.
Basically, this is the same data the government long offered, only now it’s maintained by dedicated volunteers. The information combines data from the original guide with data from the World Bank Group and a service called REST Countries API.
And now it’ll always be available for anyone to access. All you need to know is where to find it.
- OpenFactBook is a good old-fashioned website—no downloads or installations required.
- It’s free, with optional donations to support the hosting and data access expenses.
- The site has no cookies, tracking, or personal data collection of any kind.
Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free Cool Tools newsletter—starting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app that’ll tune up your days in truly delightful ways.