I logged on this morning to see news articles about the shuttering of the CIA World Factbook website. I’ll admit that I hadn’t personally used the site much but I’m still disappointed that it’s gone. This site, and the print edition, was an example of a government agency giving the information it had collected back to the people who funded it, namely the taxpayers. Now, we’re getting less in return for our tax money.
No reason has actually been given for the shutting down of the site, although TheHill.com did include this note in its report.
Last May, The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration was planning to cut more than 1,000 employees at the CIA and other intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cia-shuttering-world-factbook-reference-tool/ar-AA1VLzKN
The New York Times article included another perspective from Beth Sanner, a former senior government intelligence official, who didn’t seem that sad to see the Factbook go.
The Factbook, over time, became something of a box-checking exercise, she said. Eventually, contractors took it over. It persisted less because it was useful but rather because it had always existed and no one wanted to kill it.
“C.I.A. is not the Library of Congress,” Ms. Sanner said with a laugh. “The intelligence community shouldn’t be your librarian.”
I personally find the last comment a little cavalier. Again, this was a useful service to the American people who fund the agency and it’s sad to see that service lost although the comments do indicate that the publication wasn’t being prioritized anyway and therefore might not have been as reliable.
At any rate, there are a couple of ways that you can still read the Factbook. The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine still has archived editions such as the one from December 2025.
https://web.archive.org/web/20251203142736/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook
Also, the print and Kindle editions of the CIA World Factbook are still available on Amazon.
According to Amazon, there’s also a new 2026-2027 edition coming out at the beginning of April 2026 and I hope, for the sake of all those who have relied on this publication, that the work is far enough along to still be published so they can have at least one more year of data.
Sign up for my newsletter to receive updates about new projects, including the new book "Self-Guided SQL"!
We respect your privacy and will never share your information with third-parties. See our privacy policy for more information.
