About The World Factbook

The World Factbook Archives

Access The World Factbook

What: Posted below is the Central Intelligence Agency’s most popular publication — The World Factbook, for the convenience of visitors who wish to see previous versions.

Access previous versions below:

Format: The 2020 and earlier versions have been compressed in .Zip format; when uncompressed they are in standard HTML format.

How to use the compressed versions of the publication: The files named index.htm and index.html open the publication’s home page. Navigate to the index file in the folder or directory you created using a file manager, such as Windows Explorer, then double-click it to open and begin using the publication.

Please note that the downloaded World Factbook functions as a stand-alone publication on your computer. Some features like country photos and anthems will not be available and the Search link will cause your browser to attempt to connect to the CIA’s Web site. The search software resides on our server and cannot be distributed with The World Factbook.