#cia-world-factbook

#cia-world-factbook

Google is losing one of its main sources of information for its Knowledge Graph, the CIA World Factbook. This was a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency between 1962 and 2026 with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. Glenn Gabe posted about this on X, and noted that The CIA World Factbook is sunsetting. On February 4, 2026, the CIA announced that The World Factbook was discontinued.

When one of the world's most secretive and far-reaching organizations offers to share how it sees the world, it's worth taking a peek. That's the thought I had when I dove into the CIA World Factbook for the first time as a young editor at CNN International in the early 2000s. If journalists aim to write the first draft of history, I figured, then the Factbook, culling data from Cabinet agencies and other official outlets, could be a reliable primary source.