The World Factbook is a free, public domain web resource prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency. The factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. In addition to profiles on every nation, the factbook provides a reference library of physical and political maps, flags of the world, and rank-order country comparison lists of 79 different data fields including population, area, GDP, military expenditures, literacy rates, number of Internet hosts, and more. The information provided in the factbook is sourced and compiled from a wide range of U.S. Government departments and organizations, and is updated at least annually. The factbook is written and designed with a primary audience of U.S. Goverment officials in mind. The entire factbook or portions of it, including the maps and country comparison data sets, can be downloaded or printed for offline use.

Video: Using the CIA World Factbook in Geography and Social Studies Lessons

Special thanks to Nikki Gregerson, District Elementary Media Supervisor, for suggesting this resource.