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Geography ::
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Why are Taiwan and the European Union listed out of alphabetical
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Taiwan is listed after the A-Z country entries because even though
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is only one China and that Taiwan is part of China.
The European Union (EU) is not a country, but it has taken on many
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more complete explanation on the inclusion of the EU into the
Factbook can be found in the Preliminary statement.
Since we have an ambassador who represents the US at the Vatican,
why is this entity not listed in the Factbook?
Vatican City is found under Holy See. The term "Holy See" refers to
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See is included as a Factbook entry, with Vatican City
cross-referenced in the Geographic Names appendix.
Why is Palestine not listed in The World Factbook?
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Why are the Golan Heights not shown as part of Israel or Northern
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Territorial occupations/annexations not recognized by the United
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Why don't you include information on entities such as Tibet or
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The World Factbook provides information on the administrative
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What do you mean when you say that a country is "doubly landlocked"?
A doubly landlocked country is one that is separated from an ocean
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Why is the area of the United States described as "slightly larger
than China" in the Factbook , while other sources list China as
larger in area than the United States?
It all depends on whether one is looking at total area (land and
water) when making the comparison (which is the criterion used by
the Factbook) or just land area (which excludes inland water
features such as rivers and lakes).
Total area (combining land and water)
United States = 9,826,630 sq km China = 9,596,960 sq km
Land only (without any water features)
United States = 9,161,923 sq km China = 9,326,410 sq km
Why has The World Factbook dropped the four French departments of
Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, and French Guiana?
The four entities are no longer in The World Factbook because their
status has changed. While they are overseas departments of France,
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Their status is somewhat analogous to Alaska and Hawaii vis-a-vis
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geographic entity, they are still considered to be an integral part
of it.
Photos ::
Why do you not have pictures for every country?
Inclusion of photos in The World Factbook is a new feature that
premiered with the unveiling of the redesigned online World Factbook
in June 2009. This is a long-term project, and we plan to
continuously add more photos to the site over time. Eventually, we
hope to have images for every country in the Factbook.
Could you include photos of people from different locations around
the world?
Factbook policy is to not include photos showing identifiable
individuals.
I have great travel photos from my trips abroad. Can I submit them
to your website to enhance your photo collection?
We appreciate the many offers from the public to contribute to our
photo collection. However, we only use photos from US Government
sources.
Spelling and Pronunciation ::
Why is the spelling of proper names such as rulers, presidents, and
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in my country?
The Factbook staff applies the names and spellings from the Chiefs
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they may appear first in some cultures.
Why does the spelling of geographic names, features, cities,
administrative divisions, etc. in the Factbook differ from those
used in my country?
The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) recommends and
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Why does The World Factbook omit pronunciations of country or leader
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Why is the name of the Labour party misspelled?
When American and British spellings of common English words differ,
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Policies and Procedures ::
What is The World Factbook's source for a specific subject field?
The Factbook staff uses many different sources to publish what we
judge are the most reliable and consistent data for any particular
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The names of some geographic features provided in the Factbook
differ from those used in other publications. For example, in Asia
the Factbook has Burma as the country name, but in other
publications Myanmar is used; also, the Factbook uses Sea of Japan
whereas other publications label it East Sea. What is your policy on
naming geographic features?
The Factbook staff follows the guidance of the United States Board
on Geographic Names (BGN). The BGN is the component of the United
States Government that develops policies, principles, and procedures
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Why is most of the statistical information in the Factbook given in
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US Federal agencies are required by the Metric Conversion Act of
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Why don't you include information on minimum and maximum temperature
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The Factbook staff judges that this information would only be useful
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whole.
What information sources are used for the country flags?
Flag designs used in The World Factbook are based on various
national and vexillological sources.
Why do your GDP (Gross Domestic Product) statistics differ from
other sources?
We have two sets of GDP dollar estimates in The World Factbook , one
derived from purchasing power parity (PPP) calculations and the
other derived from official exchange rates (OER). Other sources
probably use one of the two. See the Definitions and Notes section
on GDP and GDP methodology for more information.
On the CIA Web site, Chiefs of State is updated weekly, but the last
update for the Factbook was an earlier date. Why the discrepancy?
Although Chiefs of State and The World Factbook both appear on the
CIA Web site, they are produced and updated on different weekly
schedules. Chiefs of State includes fewer countries but more
leaders, whereas The World Factbook has a much larger database and
includes all countries.
Some percentage distributions do not add to 100. Why not?
Because of rounding, percentage distributions do not always add
precisely to 100%. Rounding of numbers always results in a loss of
precision - i.e., error. This error becomes apparent when percentage
data are totaled, as the following two examples show:
Original Data Rounded to whole integer
Example 1 43.2 43
30.4 30
26.4 26
---- --
100.0 99
Example 2 42.8 43
31.6 32
25.6 26
---- --
100.0 101
When this occurs, we do not force the numbers to add exactly to 100,
because doing so would introduce additional error into the
distribution.
What rounding convention does The World Factbook use?
In deciding on the number of digits to present, the Factbook staff
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economic data presented in The Factbook, therefore, follow the
rounding convention used by virtually all numerical software
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the next higher digit, no matter whether the original digit is even
or odd. Thus, for example, when rounded to the nearest integer, 2.5
becomes 3, rather than 2, as occurred in some pre-computer rounding
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Why do you list "Independence" dates for countries such as France,
Germany, and the United Kingdom?
For most countries, this entry presents the date that sovereignty
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other countries, the date may be some other significant nationhood
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succession and so may not strictly be an "Independence" date.
Dependent entities have the nature of their dependency status noted
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Technical ::
Does The World Factbook comply with Section 508 of the
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We believe The World Factbook is compliant with the Section 508 law.
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I am using the Factbook online and it is not working. What is wrong?
Hundreds of "Factbook" look-alikes exist on the Internet. You can
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Some of the files on The World Factbook Web site are large and could
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When I open a map on The World Factbook site, it is fuzzy or
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Adjusting the resolution setting on your monitor should correct this
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Is The World Factbook country data available in machine-readable
format? All I can find is HTML, but I'm looking for simple tabular
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The Factbook Web site now features Country Comparison pages for
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other applications such as spreadsheets and databases.
======================================================================
@Afghanistan (South Asia)
Introduction ::Afghanistan
Background:
Ahmad Shah DURRANI unified the Pashtun tribes and founded
Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the
British and Russian Empires until it won independence from notional
British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy ended in a
1973 coup and a 1978 Communist counter-coup. The Soviet Union
invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan Communist regime,
touching off a long and destructive war. The USSR withdrew in 1989
under relentless pressure by internationally supported
anti-Communist mujahedin rebels. A series of subsequent civil wars
saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline
Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994 to end the
country's civil war and anarchy. Following the 11 September 2001
terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., a US,
Allied, and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military action toppled
the Taliban for sheltering Osama BIN LADIN. The UN-sponsored Bonn
Conference in 2001 established a process for political
reconstruction that included the adoption of a new constitution, a
presidential election in 2004, and National Assembly elections in
2005. In December 2004, Hamid KARZAI became the first democratically
elected president of Afghanistan and the National Assembly was
inaugurated the following December. Karzai was re-elected in August
2009 for a second term. Despite gains toward building a stable
central government, a resurgent Taliban and continuing provincial
instability - particularly in the south and the east - remain
serious challenges for the Afghan Government.
Geography ::Afghanistan
Location:
Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran
Geographic coordinates:
33 00 N, 65 00 E
Map references:
Asia
Area:
total: 652,230 sq km
country comparison to the world: 41
land: 652,230 sq km
water: 0 sq km
Area - comparative:
slightly smaller than Texas
Land boundaries:
total: 5,529 km
border countries: China 76 km, Iran 936 km, Pakistan 2,430 km,
Tajikistan 1,206 km, Turkmenistan 744 km, Uzbekistan 137 km
Coastline:
0 km (landlocked)
Maritime claims:
none (landlocked)
Climate:
arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers
Terrain:
mostly rugged mountains; plains in north and southwest
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Amu Darya 258 m
highest point: Noshak 7,485 m
Natural resources:
natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites,
sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones
Land use:
arable land: 12.13%
permanent crops: 0.21%
other: 87.66% (2005)
Irrigated land:
27,200 sq km (2003)
Total renewable water resources:
65 cu km (1997)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):
total: 23.26 cu km/yr (2%/0%/98%)
per capita: 779 cu m/yr (2000)
Natural hazards: