The Project Gutenberg EBook of The 2004 CIA World Factbook, by
United States. Central Intelligence Agency

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
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Title: The 2004 CIA World Factbook

Author: United States. Central Intelligence Agency

Release Date: December 18, 2008 [EBook #27559]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE 2004 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK ***

Produced by Al Haines

THE CIA WORLD FACTBOOK 2004

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)

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What's New

- Country information has been updated as of 10 February, 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 five new fields. 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 name spelling
changes.

The World Factbook 2004 printed versi