The Project Gutenberg EBook of The 2005 CIA World Factbook, by
United States. Central Intelligence Agency

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Title: The 2005 CIA World Factbook

Author: United States. Central Intelligence Agency

Release Date: December 18, 2008 [EBook #27560]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE 2005 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK ***

Produced by Al Haines

THE CIA WORLD FACTBOOK 2005

CONTENTS

Countries and Locations

Field Listings

Rank Orders

Appendixes

Notes and Definitions

History of The World Factbook

Contributors and Copyright Information

Purchasing Information

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What's New

- Country information has been updated as of 20 October, 2005.

- There have been some significant changes to the latest edition of The
World Factbook. Recent confirmation that the United Kingdom Government
administers the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia on Cyprus
as dependencies (and not as lease areas like the US Guantanamo Bay
Naval Station in Cuba) has required a changing of their status and
their addition to the Factbook as new entities. In addition, the
European Union has been included as an "Other" entity at the end of the
listing. The European Union continues to accrue more nation-like
characteristics for itself and so a separate listing was deemed
appropriate. A fuller explanation may be found under the European Union
Preliminary statement.

- Along with the new entities and the regular information updates,
The World Factbook now also features six new fields. In the
People category, a Major infectious diseases field has been added
for countries deemed to pose a higher degree of risk for
travelers. In the Economy category, entries have been added for
Current account balance, Investment (gross fixed), Public debt,
and Reserves of foreign exchange and gold. The Transnational
issues category has a new Refugees and internally displaced
persons entry.

- Revision of some individual country maps, first introduced in
the 2001 edition, is continued in this edition. Several regional
maps have also been updated to reflect boundary changes and place