This 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.

There 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

2025-2026 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....

The very first program I ever wrote that I was proud of was a CIA world factbook scraper and report generation script in High School. A hard ass of a teacher had people grab a random assortment of facts about random countries on there and put it all into word, under the guise that it taught you something about the countries. It was entirely formulaic and I remember the lightning realization I could use the Java I was learning in AP class. I made a bet with my roommate that I could write the program to do it faster than it took him to actually do it. I went over by a half hour, but I posted it to facebook and there was much rejoicing in the class.

My guess is that the current administration has deleted all internal data from the CIA World Factbook to prevent any attempt to revive it in future. Would be amazing if the next US administration were to use this archived data to rebuild it.

To 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..

This is crazy: https://cia-factbook-archive.fly.dev/analysis/changes

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

Just an incredible service. Really appreciate that you put all of your backend work into the open.

This is an archive of the service which is being shut down under the current WH administration?

There is a bug in the time series charts. Data needs to be normalized prior to charting. For example: https://cia-factbook-archive.fly.dev/archive/field/IN/Broadb...

Any way to download them all at once?

Cool project. The world population seems to be double counted. I think https://cia-factbook-archive.fly.dev/analysis/trends

Site loads very slowly for me. Tried various devices and networks. Same for a friend of mine overseas.

This is clearly a vibe coded project. If I were to critique it taking its warm reception into consideration I wouldn’t necessarily call it slop. Slurry? Soup? A good portion of the discussion here are bug reports about things I could imagine someone who has experience in working with this sort of data would anticipate and address in the flow of development, whether on their own or with an LLM.

Yes it is an ambitious project, yes it is useful in theory, but I’m interested in its viability as a legitimate tool for the sort of people who would rely on it for research purposes as opposed to the sort of people who find it a fascinating project but in practice it is little more than something to pique their curiosity—a toy.

At the same time maybe it doesn’t have to be either. It could just be a display of the initiative and ingenuity of the person behind it. But little else can be inferred about them I reckon.

Wonderful project. Thank you for the preservation!

I like the timeline feature. Maybe I need to spend more time, but to see political changes / borders / etc. would all be great! Keep up the good work.

Kudos! I was working on doing this as well, so it's nice to see it already done.

found a bug: Australia links to American Samoa in 2025 archive.

Nice!

One thing; you're supposed to write "Cannot confirm or deny my affiliation with the CIA"

Hurray!

I didnt discover this until I saw the recent post about its deactivation.

Hmm. It's kind of weird, because I think I actually used it in the 1990s, probably shortly before Wikipedia emerged. Ever since Wikipedia, I don't think I used the CIA world Factbook much at all, so in a way I guess this partly explains why the website is now defunct. But I am a tiny bit sad that it is gone, if only for a piece of nostalgia from the 1990s era. I think we need to be careful - yes, wikipedia has that information, but we kind of lose websites here. That is a potential danger, because we end up with more and more of a monopoly which is rarely good (ok, wikipedia may be an exception but it also has intrinsic quality issues; it is still excellent in many ways but not perfect, and we may get tunnel vision the more websites vanish - just look at the AI slop autogenerated "content" or "affiliate" links you see in a google search, if anyone is still using that).

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.

Treating this as a neutral ground truth is a recipe for data poisoning

This is pretty basic but kinda neat. A good way to browse the fact books like a website. Definitely could use more features but imo superior than flipping through a PDF.

What is its copyright status?

This 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.