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.
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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.
