factbook.json - World Factbook Country Profiles in JSON

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).

• [1] The World Factbook
• [2] Wikipedia Article: The World Factbook

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.

Background

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.

Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Qs) & Answers

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.

Q: Why not just use the ISO country codes? Not a bug, a feature request.

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 :)

Q: Can you update the datasets?

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)

Q: What happened to the Western Sahara (wi) country profile?

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

Examples

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 Summary (266 260 Entries)

The World Factbook includes 266 260 entries - 195 sovereign countries / 2 others / 58 52 dependencies / 5 miscellaneous / 5 oceans / 1 world:

Sovereign Countries (195)

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

Other (2)

tw Taiwan ee European Union

Dependencies (52)

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)

Miscellaneous (5)

ay Antarctica gz Gaza Strip pf Paracel Islands pg Spratly Islands we West Bank wi Western Sahara

Oceans (5)

xq Arctic Ocean zh Atlantic Ocean xo Indian Ocean zn Pacific Ocean oo Southern Ocean

World (1)

xx World

Build Your Own Up-to-Date Country Profiles

See the factbook command line tool and scripts for details.

Real-World Usage

Q: Anybody using these datasets? I don't know really.

Add your project here - yes, you can!

License

The datasets and scripts are dedicated to the public domain. Use it as you please with no restrictions whatsoever.

Questions? Comments?

Send them along to the Open World Database (world.db) and Friends Forum/Mailing List. Thanks!