CIA terminates its World Factbook, overthrowing reference regime

World Factbook Vanishes from the Internet Without Warning

On Wednesday afternoon, Taylor Hale was in the middle of a Western geography lesson when his sixth-grade students informed him that the online reference they usually consulted had disappeared. He had tasked them to compare the gross domestic products of Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, leading them to the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook. Instead of finding the familiar index of countries, they landed on a blue webpage declaring the Factbook was no more.

After decades of serving as a reliable, authoritative public repository for basic information on countries, their economies, and populations, The World Factbook vanished from the internet on February 4 with no advance notice. Teachers, students, librarians, researchers, and curious citizens were abruptly cut off from a resource they had long taken for granted.

“The CIA Factbook is not bulletproof perfect, but it’s way better than a lot of other sources out there and it’s free,” Hale, a social studies teacher in Oklahoma City, said. “It was always there, and now it’s not.”

Before this week, educators like Hale routinely directed students to The World Factbook for school assignments, international travelers used it to assess security risks and vaccine recommendations, and journalists relied on its data to add context to their reporting.

“It’s a tough loss,” said John Devine, the government information research specialist for the Boston Public Library. “We’re going to have to find things from other sources. Again, how well can we trust them? How well are we going to be able to get data on developing or even barely developing countries?”

A Legacy of Data

Originally called “The National Basic Intelligence Factbook,” the resource began in 1962 as a classified publication for government and military officials. An unclassified version followed in 1971, and in 1975, it became available to the public in print. It was renamed “The World Factbook” in 1981 and transitioned to a digital format in 1997.

The CIA’s announcement of the Factbook’s shutdown came quietly, with no warning and no explanation of the change. The agency declined to comment on the record for this story, instead posting an obituary-like message on a webpage titled “Spotlighting The World Factbook as We Bid a Fond Farewell.”

“Though the World Factbook is gone, in the spirit of its global reach and legacy, we hope you will stay curious about the world and find ways to explore it… in person or virtually,” the final line read. While the website briefly touches on the reference’s history, the CIA did not elaborate on what prompted the decision to cease publication or whether any of the information would be archived.