CIA World Factbook ends publication after 6 decades
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The CIA’s World Factbook was relied upon first by government agents and eventually by researchers, educators, journalists and more.
PHOTO: DREW ANGERER/NYTIMES
Rylee Kirk and Mark Walker
NEW YORK – The Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) World Factbook, a repository of facts on nations from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe that for six decades provided detailed figures on birth and death rates and major exports, was shuttered without warning on Feb 4.
It was relied upon first by government agents and eventually by researchers, educators, journalists and more.
For more than 60 years, it served as a free public reference guide, first in print and then eventually online, offering regularly updated data on economics, populations, government and geography. The Factbook, published by the world’s premier spy agency, was long considered an objective source in an increasingly subjective information ecosystem.
The CIA declined to say why it was ending the Factbook. But the disappearance feels personal to those who relied on it, not because it was exciting, but because it was steady.
It was so trustworthy that it earned its own “Jeopardy!” category in 2020.
First published in 1962 during the height of the Cold War, the collection of global facts was classified and known as The National Basic Intelligence Factbook.
By 1971, a companion unclassified version appeared. A decade later, it was given a simpler name, The World Factbook. And in 1997, at the dawn of the internet era, it went online, available not just to federal operatives but also to anyone with an internet connection and a question.
Not everyone is sad to see the Factbook gone.
Ms Beth Sanner, a former senior government intelligence official, recalled working with other analysts to put the Factbook together in the 1980s. Back then, analysts were given the tasks of writing and reviewing paragraphs, population figures and political party names, she said.
The work was boring. Also risky, she said. Get someone wrong or make a spelling error, and the complaints roll in.
When the Factbook started, the work gave people access to information compiled by a trusted source.
“When it started, it was important, because there was no such thing as the internet,” she said. “Now, it’s like, what’s the point?” NYTIMES
