首页 | 主题 | 图库 | 问答 | 文摘 | 原创 | 百科

历史 | 地理 | 人物 | 艺术 | 体育 | 科学 | 音乐 | 电影 | 信息技术 | 世界遗产

 开放、中立，源自维基百科

Personal tools

The World Factbook

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
The World Factbook

The World Factbook 2008 (government edition) cover.
Author Central Intelligence Agency
Language English
Genre(s) almanac about the countries of the world
Publisher Directorate of Intelligence[1]
Publication date see frequency of updates and availability
ISBN see the list of ISBN numbers

The World Factbook (ISSN 1553-8133; also known as the CIA World Factbook)[2] is an annual publication of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The Factbook provides a two- to three-page summary of the demographics, geography, communications, government, economy, and military of 266[3] U.S.-recognized countries, dependencies, and other areas in the world.

The World Factbook is prepared by the CIA for the use of U.S. government officials, and its style, format, coverage and content are primarily designed to meet their requirements.[4] However, it is frequently used as a resource for student papers, web sites and non-governmental publications.[5] As a work of the U.S. government, it is in the public domain.[6]

Contents

Factbook sources

In researching the Factbook, the CIA uses the sources listed below. Other public and private sources are also consulted.[4]

Copyright

Image:Wfb webby.png
The World Factbook website as it appeared in January 2008.

Because the Factbook is in the public domain, people are free to redistribute and modify it in any way that they like, without permission of the CIA.[4] However, the CIA requests that it be cited when the Factbook is used.[6] The official seal of the CIA, however, may not be copied without permission as required by the CIA Act of 1949 (50 U.S.C. section 403m). Misuse of the official seal of the CIA could result in civil and criminal penalties.[7]

Frequency of updates and availability

Before November 2001, The World Factbook website was updated yearly.[8] Since then, the Factbook website is updated every two weeks; the print edition is still updated annually.[8] Generally, information currently available as of January 1 of the current year[9] is used in preparing the printed Factbook, which is released around the middle of each year.[8]

The government edition of the Factbook

The first classified edition of Factbook was published in August 1962 and the first unclassified version in June 1971.[10] The World Factbook has been available to the public in print since 1975[10] and on the World Wide Web since October 1994.[11] The Web version gets an average of 6 million visits per month;[5] it can also be downloaded.[12] The official printed version is sold[13] at cost by the Government Printing Office and National Technical Information Service. In past years, the Factbook was available on CD-ROM,[14] microfiche, magnetic tape, and floppy disk.[15]

Reprints

Image:Skyhorse-WFB-cover.jpg
The World Factbook 2008 (Skyhorse Publishing reprint edition) cover.
Image:Brassys-WFB-cover.jpg
The World Factbook 2008 (Potomac Books reprint edition) cover.

Many Internet sites use information and images from the CIA World Factbook.[16] Several publishers, including Grand River Books,[17] Potomac Books (formerly known as Brassy's Inc.),[18] and Skyhorse Publishing[19] have re-published the factbook in recent years.

Entities in the Factbook

Main article: List of entities and changes in The World Factbook

As of February 2008, The World Factbook consists of 266 entities.[3] These entities can be divided into categories.[3] They are:

Independent countries
This category has independent countries, which the CIA defines as people "politically organized into a sovereign state with a definite territory".[3] In this category, there are 194 entities.
Others
The Other category is a list of other places set apart from the list of independent countries. Currently there are two: Taiwan and the European Union.
Dependencies and Areas of Special Sovereignty
This category is a list of places affiliated with another country. They may be subdivided into categories using the country they are affiliated with:
Miscellaneous
This category is for Antarctica and places in dispute. There are six entities.
Other entities
This category is for the World and the oceans. There are five oceans and the World (the World entry is intended as a summary of the other 265 entries).[5]

Oddities and controversies

Political

Areas not covered

Specific regions within a country or areas in dispute among countries, such as Kashmir, are not covered,[20] but other areas of the world whose status is disputed, such as the Spratly Islands, have entries.[21] Subnational areas of countries (such as US States or the Canadian provinces and territories) are not included in the Factbook. Instead, users looking for information about subnational areas are referred to "a good encyclopedia" for their reference needs.[22] This criterion was invoked in the 2007 edition with the decision to drop the entries for French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Reunion. They were dropped due to the fact that besides being overseas departments, they were now overseas regions, and a part of France.[23]

Kashmir
Maps depicting Kashmir have the India–Pakistan border drawn at the Line of Control, but the region of Kashmir administered by China drawn in hash marks.[24]
Northern Cyprus
Northern Cyprus is not given a separate entry or listed as part of Turkey because "territorial occupations/annexations not recognized by the United States Government are not shown on U.S. Government maps."[25]
Taiwan/Republic of China
Taiwan has a separate entry not listed under T, but at the bottom of the list.[26] The name "Republic of China" is not listed as Taiwan's "official name" under the "Government" section,[27] due to U.S. recognition of Beijing's One-China policy according to which there is one China - the People's Republic of China - and Taiwan is a part of it.[28] The name "Republic of China" was briefly added on January 27, 2005[29] but has since been changed back to "none".[30] (See also: Political status of Taiwan, Legal status of Taiwan)
Burma/Myanmar
The U.S. does not recognize the renaming of Burma by its ruling military junta to Myanmar and thus keeps its entry for the country under "Burma". This is done because the name change "was not approved by any sitting legislature in Burma". As a result, the US government has never adopted the name Myanmar.[31]
Macedonia
The Republic of Macedonia is entered under Macedonia.[32] This is despite the fact that no international organizations such as the United Nations,[33] the European Union,[34] NATO,[35] the European Broadcasting Union,[36] and the International Olympic Committee[37] use this short form (they all use the phrase The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). The history of the name used for the entry is a bit complex. In the 1992 edition of The World Factbook, the entry for the nation was listed under the former[38] (at the same time, new entries were added for the then 20 nations that were formed out of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia; the latter two being dropped.) In the 1994 edition, the name of the entry was changed to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.[39] For the next decade, this was the name the nation was listed under. Finally, in the 2004 edition of the Factbook, the name of the entry was changed back to Macedonia.[40] This came after a November 2004 US decision to refer to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as the Republic of Macedonia.[41] (See also Macedonia naming dispute.)
Image:FRYugoMap2k.jpg
A map of Yugoslavia from the 2000 edition of The World Factbook.[42] Notice how the disclaimer is printed in the upper right hand corner. One can see how the capital cities of both republics are individually labeled on the map.
European Union
On December 16, 2004, the CIA added an entry for the European Union (EU).[43] (Before this date, the EU was excluded from the Factbook.[44]) According to the CIA, the European Union was added because the EU "continues to accrue more nation-like characteristics for itself".[28]
United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges and Iles Eparses
In the 2006 edition of The World Factbook, the entries for Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Kingman Reef, Johnston Atoll, Palmyra Atoll, and the Midway Islands were merged into a new United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges entry.[45] The old entries for each individual insular area remain as redirects on the Factbook website.[46] On September 7, 2006, the CIA also merged the entries for Bassas da India, Europa Island, the Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island, and Tromelin Island into a new Iles Eparses entry.[47] As with the new United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges entry, the old entries for these five islands remained as redirects on the website.[48] On July 19, 2007 the Iles Eparses entry and redirects for each island were dropped due to the group becoming a district of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands in February.[49]
Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro
Yugoslavia has had a confusing history in the Factbook. Before 1992, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) was included in the Factbook.[50] In 1992, the entry was dropped[38] and entries were added for all of the former republics.[38] In doing this, the CIA listed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) as Serbia and Montenegro.[51] This was done in accordance with a May 21, 1992 decision[52] by the US Government not to recognize the FRY (or any of the other republics)[53] as successor states to the recently dissolved SFRY. The US Government also decided not recognize the FRY itself as a state.[54]
These views were made clear in a disclaimer printed in the Factbook:[55]
Besides the disclaimer, the republics of Serbia and Montenegro were treated separately in the data, as can be seen in the map to the right.[56] In October 2000, Slobodan Milošević resigned after a disputed election held the previous month.[57] This event caused a change in the 2001 edition of the Factbook, with the Serbia and Montenegro entity being renamed Yugoslavia.[58] On March 14, 2002, an agreement was signed to transform the FRY into a loose state union called Serbia and Montenegro;[59] it took effect on February 4, 2003.[60] The name of the Yugoslavia entity was changed in the Factbook the month after the change.[61]
East Timor/Timor-Leste
On July 19, 2007 the entry for East Timor was renamed Timor-Leste following a decision of the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN).[62]
Kosovo
On February 28, 2008 the CIA added an entry for Kosovo[63]; before this, Kosovo was not included in the Factbook[20]. This addition was done even though Russia[64] and Serbia[64] do not recognize Kosovo.

Factual

Before 1998, the United Kingdom profile contained a sentence that asserted the UK had gained independence on 1 January 1801.[65] This terse, confusing description in reference to the Act of Union 1801 has since been greatly expanded.[66]

ISBN numbers

This is a list of International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) for the Government edition[67] of The World Factbook. ISBNs for the Potomac Books and Skyhorse Publishing reprints of the Factbook are noted as well. For the reprint editions, the year of the data is in parentheses.

government editions
Potomac Books reprints
Skyhorse Publishing reprints

See also

Retrieved from "http://en.wikilib.com/wiki/The_World_Factbook"
Navigation
Languages
AD Links