The 2003 CIA World Factbook. United States. Central Intelligence Agency
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uses Sea of Japan whereas other publications label it East Sea. What is you policy on naming geographic features?
The Factbook staff follows the guidance of the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN). The BGN is the component of the United States Government that develops policies, principles, and procedures governing the spelling, use, and application of geographic names—domestic, foreign, Antarctic, and undersea. Its decisions enable all departments and agencies of the US Government to have access to uniform names of geographic features. The position of the BGN is that the names Burma and Sea of Japan be used in official US Government maps and publications.
Why is most of the statistical information in the Factbook given in metric units, rather than the units standard to US measure?
US Federal agencies are required by the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 (Public Law 94–168) and by Executive Order 12770 of July 1991 to use the International System of Units, commonly referred to as the metric system or SI. In addition, the metric system is used by over 95 percent of the world's population.
Why don't you include information on minimum and maximum temperature extremes?
The Factbook staff judges that this information would only be useful for some (generally smaller) countries. Larger countries can have large temperature extremes that do not represent the landmass as a whole. In the future, such a category may be adopted listing the extremes, but also adding a normal temperature range found throughout most of a country's territory.
What information sources are used for the country flags?
Flag designs used in The World Factbook are those recognized by the protocol office of the US Department of State.
Why do your GDP (Gross Domestic Product) statistics differ from other sources?
GDP dollar estimates in The World Factbook are derived from purchasing power parity (PPP) calculations. See the Notes and Definitions section on GDP methodology for more information.
On the CIA Web site, Chiefs of State is updated weekly, but the last update for the Factbook was an earlier date. Why the discrepancy?
Although Chiefs of State and The World Factbook both appear on the CIA Web site, they are produced and updated by separate staffs. Chiefs of State includes fewer countries but more leaders, and is updated more frequently than The World Factbook, which has a much larger database, and includes all countries.
Some percentage distributions do not add to 100. Why not?
Because of rounding, percentage distributions do not always add precisely to 100%. Rounding of numbers always results in a loss of precision—i.e., error. This error becomes apparent when percentage data are totaled, as the following two examples show:
Original Data Rounded to whole integer
Example 1 43.2 43
30.4 30
26.4 26
———
100.0 99
Example 2 42.8 43
31.6 32
25.6 26
———
100.0 101
When this occurs, we do not force the numbers to add exactly to 100, because doing so would introduce additional error into the distribution.
What rounding convention does The World Factbook use?
In deciding on the number of digits to present, the Factbook staff assesses the accuracy of the original data and the needs of US Government officials. All of the economic data are processed by computer—either at the source or by the Factbook staff. The economic data presented in The Factbook, therefore, follow the rounding convention used by virtually all numerical software applications, namely, any digit followed by a "5" is rounded up to the next higher digit, no matter whether the original digit is even or odd. Thus, for example, when rounded to the nearest integer, 2.5 becomes 3, rather than 2, as occurred in some pre-computer rounding systems.
Technical
Does The World Factbook comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation
Act regarding accessibility of Web pages?
The World Factbook home page has a link entitled "Text/Low Bandwidth Version." The country data in the text version is fully accessible. We believe The World Factbook is compliant with the Section 508 law in both fact and spirit. If you are experiencing difficulty, please use our comment form to provide us details of the specific problem you are experiencing and the assistive software and/or hardware that you are using so that we can work with our technical support staff to find and implement a solution. We welcome visitors' suggestions to improve accessibility of The World Factbook and the CIA Web site.
I am using the Factbook online and it is not working. What is wrong?
Hundreds of "Factbook" look-alikes exist on the Internet. The Factbook site at: www.cia.gov is the only official site.
When I attempt to download a PDF (Portable Document Format) map file (or some other map) the file has no image. Can you fix this?
Some of the files on The World Factbook Web site are large and could take several minutes to download on a dial-up connection. The screen might be blank during the download process.
When I open a map on The World Factbook site, it is fuzzy or granular, or too big or too small. Why?
Adjusting the resolution setting on your monitor should correct this problem.
Is The World Factbook country data available in machine-readable format? All I can find is HTML, but I'm looking for simple tabular data.
The Factbook Web site now features "Rank Order" pages for selected Factbook entries. "Rank Order" pages are available for those data fields identified with a small bar chart icon located next to the title of the data entry. In addition, all of the "Rank Order" pages can be downloaded as tab-delimited data files that can be opened in other applications such as spreadsheets and databases.
This page was last updated on 21 October, 2003
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@Afghanistan
Introduction Afghanistan
Background:
Afghanistan's recent history is characterized by war and civil
unrest. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979, but was forced to withdraw
10 years later by anti-Communist mujahidin forces supplied and
trained by the US, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and others. Fighting
subsequently continued among the various mujahidin factions, giving
rise to a state of warlordism that eventually spawned the Taliban.
Backed by foreign sponsors, the Taliban developed as a political
force and eventually seized power. The Taliban were able to capture
most of the country, aside from Northern Alliance strongholds
primarily in the northeast, until US and allied military action in
support of the opposition following the 11 September 2001 terrorist
attacks forced the group's downfall. In late 2001, major leaders
from the Afghan opposition groups and diaspora met in Bonn, Germany,
and agreed on a plan for the formulation of a new government
structure that resulted in the inauguration of Hamid KARZAI as
Chairman of the Afghan Interim Authority (AIA) on 22 December 2001.
The AIA held a nationwide Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) in June 2002,
and KARZAI was elected President by secret ballot of the
Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan (TISA). The Transitional