Main Content

Welcome to The World Factbook
The World Factbook provides information on the history, people and society, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. The Reference tab includes: a variety of world, regional, country, ocean, and time zone maps; Flags of the World; and a Country Comparison function that ranks the country information and data in more than 75 Factbook fields.
World Map
What's New section
Today is:
December 19, 2019
The canyon under Denman Glacier in Antarctica was just recently identified as being the deepest point on that continent at -3,500 meters, which also makes it the world's deepest point on land. Challenger Deep - in the Pacific Ocean's Marianas Trench at -10,924 meters - is the lowest point on the earth's surface.
December 12, 2019
Dozens more One-Page Summaries of country information are in production and will soon join the 63 that are currently available. One-Page Summaries and Travel Facts are The World Factbook's most popular new features.
December 05, 2019
Ten more Travel Facts have been added to the Factbook. This latest batch includes seven countries (Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania) and three dependencies (Faroe Islands, Greenland, Isle of Man). The total number of Travel Facts is now 204.
November 21, 2019
Time zone maps are some of the most readily available maps in the world - found in almanacs, dictionaries, travel guides, and phone books - but they rarely agree in content. The World Factbook's Standard Time Zones of the World map has a reputation for accuracy that makes it one of the most widely used and reproduced time zone maps in the world. The map may be found under the References tab>Regional and World Maps>Standard Time Zones of the World.
November 14, 2019
Batches of new photos have been added to the following World Factbook entries: Canada, Faroe Islands, France, Greenland, Guernsey, Iceland, Morocco, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.
November 07, 2019
New Travel Facts have been uploaded for the following 10 countries: Kosovo, Montenegro, Mozambique, Romania, Rwanda, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan. The total number of available Travel Facts is now up to 194 destinations.
October 31, 2019
In the Government category, the "Constitution" entry for all countries has recently been widely reviewed and updated where necessary.
October 24, 2019
The fields for "Military and security forces" (formerly "Military branches") and "Military expenditures" have been updated for all countries with the latest available information.
October 17, 2019
Dozens of new photos have been added to the following country entries spanning three continents: Botswana, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Namibia, Peru, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
October 10, 2019
The latest group of 10 new Travel Facts has been uploaded. Included in this batch are eight countries - Saint Kitts and Nevis, Senegal, Serbia, Timor-Leste, Togo, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan - as well as the UK crown dependency of Jersey and the US territory of Puerto Rico. The total number of countries and dependencies with Travel Facts now stands at 184.