Hi. Nice project. One issue though; if you go to the Factbook for any year[1], the link to the entry for “Germany”[2] will take you to the entry for the Gambia for every year I have checked. I have not noticed any other countries where that happens. [1] https://cia-factbook-archive.fly.dev/archive/2002 [2] https://cia-factbook-archive.fly.dev/archive/2002/GM
Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
41–50 of 106 posts
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#422025-2026 is available (to purchase/read outside or ur site) and the last version 2026-2027 is planed for release on April 7th, https://www.amazon.com/CIA-World-Factbook-2026-2027-ebook/dp... .
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#432025-2026 is available (to purchase/read outside or ur site) and the last version 2026-2027 is planed for release on April 7th, https://www.amazon.com/CIA-World-Factbook-2026-2027-ebook/dp... .
Will add to this once it's out. Thanks for sending this :)
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#44Hi. Nice project. One issue though; if you go to the Factbook for any year[1], the link to the entry for “Germany”[2] will take you to the entry for the Gambia for every year I have checked. I have not noticed any other countries where that happens. [1] https://cia-factbook-archive.fly.dev/archive/2002 [2] https://cia-factbook-archive.fly.dev/archive/2002/GM
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#452025-2026 is available (to purchase/read outside or ur site) and the last version 2026-2027 is planed for release on April 7th, https://www.amazon.com/CIA-World-Factbook-2026-2027-ebook/dp... .
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#46Hi. Nice project. One issue though; if you go to the Factbook for any year[1], the link to the entry for “Germany”[2] will take you to the entry for the Gambia for every year I have checked. I have not noticed any other countries where that happens. [1] https://cia-factbook-archive.fly.dev/archive/2002 [2] https://cia-factbook-archive.fly.dev/archive/2002/GM
I found another example: searching for "Nicaragua" takes you to the page for "Niger".
Root cause: CIA uses FIPS codes (CanonicalCode), which differ from ISO Alpha-2 for many countries. Templates and SQL queries prioritized CanonicalCode over ISOAlpha2, so URL codes like /archive/2025/AU matched the wrong country.
Australia (AU) -> American Samoa (AS = CIA FIPS for Australia) Singapore (SG) -> Senegal (SG = CIA FIPS for Senegal) Germany (DE) -> Gambia (GM = CIA FIPS for Germany)
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey, what features would you like to see??
Hi, thanks for this! Not sure if you're aware that clicking Australia goes to American Samoa, similar issue with some others that I encountered (Bahamas -> Burkina faso).
Root cause: The CIA World Factbook, published by the Central Intelligence Agency, uses the U.S. Government's FIPS 10-4 country codes, which differ from the ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 codes used by the rest of the world. Of the 281 entities in our database, 173 have different FIPS and ISO codes. Our lookups matched FIPS codes first, so when codes collided between the two systems, the wrong country was loaded. Fixed all 13 queries and 6 templates to always prefer ISO over FIPS.
Examples fixed:
Australia (ISO=AU) was loading American Samoa (FIPS=AQ, but Australia's FIPS=AS collides with American Samoa's ISO=AS) Singapore (ISO=SG) was loading Senegal (FIPS=SG) Germany (ISO=DE) was loading Gambia (FIPS=GM = Germany's FIPS, ISO=GM = Gambia) Bahamas (ISO=BS) was loading Burkina Faso (FIPS=BF = Bahamas' FIPS, ISO=BF = Burkina Faso)
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#48found a bug: Australia links to American Samoa in 2025 archive.
Yes I noticed that too, and clicking on Austria takes you to Australia instead! (AU instead of AT which is Austria's country code) Then when you actually are in Australia, if you click back to 2001 or earlier it changes to 'Ashmore and Cartier Islands'
Root cause: The CIA World Factbook, published by the Central Intelligence Agency, uses the U.S. Government's FIPS 10-4 country codes, which differ from the ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 codes used by the rest of the world. Of the 281 entities in our database, 173 have different FIPS and ISO codes. Our lookups matched FIPS codes first, so when codes collided between the two systems, the wrong country was loaded. Fixed all 13 queries and 6 templates to always prefer ISO over FIPS.
Examples fixed:
Australia (ISO=AU) was loading American Samoa (FIPS=AQ, but Australia's FIPS=AS collides with American Samoa's ISO=AS) Singapore (ISO=SG) was loading Senegal (FIPS=SG) Germany (ISO=DE) was loading Gambia (FIPS=GM = Germany's FIPS, ISO=GM = Gambia) Bahamas (ISO=BS) was loading Burkina Faso (FIPS=BF = Bahamas' FIPS, ISO=BF = Burkina Faso)
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#49Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#50Cool project. The world population seems to be double counted. I think https://cia-factbook-archive.fly.dev/analysis/trends