Excellent site. One small bug though: https://cia-factbook-archive.fly.dev/analysis/compare?a=IN&b... .. The second dropdown switches to "Comoros" instead of "China" even after selection, though URL says CN for China.
Will check out! Thank you!
Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
61–70 of 106 posts
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#62To the author:
In case you are patching fields/bugs in database (like country codes for example), would it be possible for you to share that database as well with us so we can build on top?
This is actually an excellent dataset to test GraphRAG capabilities.
Also, a world simulation game, embodied with real data and real changes, can be built based off this data.
Thanks..
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#63To the author: In case you are patching fields/bugs in database (like country codes for example), would it be possible for you to share that database as well with us so we can build on top? This is actually an excellent dataset to test GraphRAG capabilities. Also, a world simulation game, embodied with real data and real changes, can be built based off this data. Thanks..
Hey there, yeah, definitely. I maintain .txt change logs for all data modifications. To be clear, no information is added or altered — the Factbook content is exactly what the CIA published. The parsing process structures the raw text into fields (removing formatting artifacts, sectioning headers, and deduplicating noise lines), but the actual data values are untouched. What I've added on top are lookup tables that map the CIA's FIPS 10-4 codes to ISO Alpha-2/3 and a unified MasterCountryID, so the different code systems can be joined and queried together.
I will add them to the github :)
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#64This is how Show HN should work. Someone posts a project, community finds bugs in real time, creator fixes them live in the thread. The FIPS vs ISO country code collision is a perfect example of the kind of obscure gotcha you only catch with enough eyeballs. Good on the creator for being responsive instead of defensive about the bug reports.
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#65There is a github of the factbook for anyone that just wants JSON or markdown files:=> https://github.com/factbook "A cache for datasets for the country profiles from the World Factbook in the original (1:1) format from the cia.gov website" https://github.com/factbook/cache.factbook.json
Hi there, thanks for linking this! My GitHub and website both link to and use this source! I just thought putting it in a SQL database and making the entire 1990-2025 queryable was needed since I couldn't find one anywhere :)
it is a lot of fun and rewarding to do this! I've done it several times for medium-sized datasets, like wikipedia dumps, the entire geospatial dataset to mapreduce it (pgsql). The wikipedia one was great, i had it set up to query things like "show me all ammunition manufactured after 1950 that is between .30 and .40" and it could just return it nearly instantly. The wikimedia dumps keep the infoboxes and relations intact, so you can do queries like this easily.
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Will scale the website
You should include this one, will also go away soon most likely: https://www.cia.gov/resources/cia-maps/
Just the start, but I added the maps to the page. Planning on linking them to their factsheets and dashboards this week.
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#67To the author: In case you are patching fields/bugs in database (like country codes for example), would it be possible for you to share that database as well with us so we can build on top? This is actually an excellent dataset to test GraphRAG capabilities. Also, a world simulation game, embodied with real data and real changes, can be built based off this data. Thanks..
Hey there, yeah, definitely. I maintain .txt change logs for all data modifications. To be clear, no information is added or altered — the Factbook content is exactly what the CIA published. The parsing process structures the raw text into fields (removing formatting artifacts, sectioning headers, and deduplicating noise lines), but the actual data values are untouched. What I've added on top are lookup tables that m…
Awesome. Thanks so much..
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi there, thanks for linking this! My GitHub and website both link to and use this source! I just thought putting it in a SQL database and making the entire 1990-2025 queryable was needed since I couldn't find one anywhere :)
it is a lot of fun and rewarding to do this! I've done it several times for medium-sized datasets, like wikipedia dumps, the entire geospatial dataset to mapreduce it (pgsql). The wikipedia one was great, i had it set up to query things like "show me all ammunition manufactured after 1950 that is between .30 and .40" and it could just return it nearly instantly. The wikimedia dumps keep the infoboxes and relations in…
Do you have a write-up of this somewhere? When I last looked at the Wikipedia dumps, they looked like a mess to parse. How were you getting structured information?
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#69This is one of the hardest sites I’ve ever tried to read.
The pages are dense blocks of tiny gray serif text with default line height and almost no visual hierarchy. It feels like gray text on gray blobs. It is exhausting to scan and read.
In 2026, this should not be an issue. We have clear standards. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) exist for a reason. Basic accessibility best practices have been documented for years.
https://wave.webaim.org/report#/https://cia-factbook-archive...
The issues are not subtle. Small text, low contrast, and long unbroken paragraphs are not design preferences. They are barriers. They make the content harder to read for everyone, especially people with visual or cognitive challenges.
This is fixable. Increase the base font size. Improve contrast ratios. Add meaningful spacing. Use clear headings and structure. These are foundational usability principles.
Accessibility is not extra polish. It is baseline quality. Right now, the site is unnecessarily hard to read. That is a design problem, not a content problem.
Re: Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable
#70This is one of the hardest sites I’ve ever tried to read. The pages are dense blocks of tiny gray serif text with default line height and almost no visual hierarchy. It feels like gray text on gray blobs. It is exhausting to scan and read. In 2026, this should not be an issue. We have clear standards. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) exist for a reason. Basic accessibility best practices have been docu…
Thanks! Will look into it