CIA terminates its World Factbook, overthrowing reference regime

The World Factbook’s Unexpected Vanishing

During a Western geography lesson on Wednesday afternoon, Taylor Hale found himself in a peculiar situation. His sixth-grade students, mid-assignment, informed him that their usual online reference—the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook—had vanished. The lesson had focused on comparing the gross domestic products of Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, but when they accessed the Factbook, they were met with a blue webpage announcing its closure.

“The CIA Factbook is not bulletproof perfect, but it’s way better than a lot of other sources out there and it’s free,” Hale, a social studies teacher in Oklahoma City, said. “It was always there, and now it’s not.”

For decades, The World Factbook had been a go-to resource for teachers, students, librarians, researchers, and curious citizens. Its sudden disappearance left many scrambling, as they were abruptly cut off from a long-trusted reference. Before this week, it was a staple in classrooms, a tool for international travelers, and a foundation for journalists’ reports.

A Reliant Resource for Years

John Devine, the government information research specialist for the Boston Public Library, shared a memory of a patron deeply interested in population statistics. Over the years, librarians found that The World Factbook was “the singular best source for this”—its data was consistently updated annually by the CIA, offering accuracy that few others matched.

“It’s a tough loss,” Devine said. “We’re going to have to find things from other sources. Again, how well can we trust them? How well are we going to be able to get data on developing or even barely developing countries?”

Originally titled “The National Basic Intelligence Factbook,” the publication began in 1962 as a classified resource for government and military officials. An unclassified version emerged in 1971, and in 1975, it was made publicly available in print. The name was changed to “The World Factbook” in 1981, and it transitioned to a digital format in 1997.

The CIA’s Quiet Departure

The CIA’s decision to shut down the Factbook came with little fanfare. No warning or explanation was provided, and the agency declined to comment on the record for this story. Instead, they shared a farewell message on a webpage titled “Spotlighting The World Factbook as We Bid a Fond Farewell.”

“Though the World Factbook is gone, in the spirit of its global reach and legacy, we hope you will stay curious about the world and find ways to explore it… in person or virtually,” the final line reads. While the website briefly highlights the reference’s history, the CIA did not clarify the reasons behind the shutdown or whether any of its data would remain accessible.