{"id":5430,"date":"2026-02-16T10:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/?p=5430"},"modified":"2026-02-13T17:14:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:14:59","slug":"farewell-cia-world-factbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/farewell-cia-world-factbook\/","title":{"rendered":"Farewell, CIA World Factbook! But Where Should I Look Now?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>On February 4, 2026, the Central Intelligence Agency announced that it would\u00a0discontinue\u00a0publication of the The World Factbook. For more than half a century, the almanac-style compilation of country-level demographic, economic, political, and social data has been a quiet but essential presence in school, public, and academic libraries across the United States.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you attended grade school anytime since the 1970s, chances are you flipped through its pages or clicked through its tables for geography reports, Model UN briefings, or last-minute country comparison assignments. For many students, it was the first stop for answering questions like:\u00a0What\u2019s\u00a0the population of Kenya?\u00a0What\u2019s\u00a0the GDP of Brazil? What languages are spoken in Indonesia?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 1971, the Factbook has been freely available to the public, evolving along with technology. Printed editions were published annually from 1975 to 2017. It went online in 1997, though many 1990s students will remember loading it from CD-ROMs or floppy disks\u00a0at a library workstation. Through every format shift, it\u00a0remained\u00a0a dependable, standardized snapshot of the world.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that the CIA will no longer publish the Factbook, where can you turn for reliable, freely accessible country profiles and data?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Below are strong\u00a0alternatives,\u00a0organized by purpose.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

📘 Country Profiles (Overview & Context)<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0looking for narrative summaries\u00a0about\u00a0political systems, culture, economy,\u00a0and\u00a0history,\u00a0these sources provide accessible overviews:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n