CIA puts the world at your fingertips

OK, what's the capital of Comoros, and how many coup attempts has it suffered since gaining independence in 1975? What's the life expectancy in Burkina Faso, and how many kilometres of roads does it have, both paved and unpaved? What's the highest point in Hungary, and when does the country next hold elections? If you want facts like these, the CIA World Factbook has an almost inexhaustible supply.

Although I've picked some random trivia, the World Factbook is a mine of useful information. If you're visiting a country, it's handy to have a potted history and basic information about the government, the infrastructure and the standard of living. It also covers things such as ethnicity, religions, local diseases and illicit drugs.

If you're doing business with a country, then it's useful to know about things like its GDP and sources of income, currency, inflation, family incomes and unemployment rates. As this is a CIA production, there are also entries for the military and "manpower fit for military service". Bear this in mind if you are planning an invasion.

The Factbook was created as a centralised source of information to avoid duplication of effort by different US government agencies. The first unclassified version was produced in 1971, and it appeared on the net in 1997, celebrating the CIA's 50th anniversary. The US government provides it copyright-free, too, so you can use the data; just don't use the CIA's official seal.

Water resources and people trafficking

Although the overall look is the same, the Factbook's content can change quite a lot. The number of countries has expanded, for example, following the break-ups of the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia. The Factbook has also expanded its coverage. Newer categories of interest, sadly, include renewable water resources, major infectious diseases and people trafficking.

On recognising and spelling countries, the Factbook follows the US diplomatic line, and the recommendations of the United States Board on Geographic Names. It therefore has an entry for Burma, instead of Myanmar. It doesn't have one for Palestine, but it does have separate entries for the West Bank and Gaza Strip: "the areas that could potentially form a future Palestinian state."

It doesn't have entries for Guadeloupe or Martinique because these are considered part of France. It does have entries for Akrotiri and Dhekelia, which are parts of Cyprus under British sovereignty — military bases, in fact. There's also an entry for the Spratly Islands, whose ownership remains to be resolved. As the Factbook says: "About 45 islands are occupied by relatively small numbers of military forces from China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam."

One of the Factbook's more endearing traits is its use of US features for comparison purposes. Bulgaria, for example, is "slightly larger than Tennessee", while Tokelau is "about 17 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC." Now, of course, you can refer to Tennessee as being slightly smaller than Bulgaria. The CIA provides the intelligence, but how you use it is up to you.