The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) announced Wednesday it is halting the publication of a decades-old intelligence resource.
The CIA wrote in an announcement that the World Factbook, which first appeared online in 1997, has “served the Intelligence Community and the general public as a longstanding, one-stop basic reference about countries and communities around the globe.” The agency’s announcement did not list any specific reasoning for its decision to end the publication of the tool.
When reached for comment, a CIA spokesperson pointed the Daily Caller News Foundation to the announcement posted on the agency’s website but declined to comment further.
The original classified publication, called The National Basic Intelligence Factbook, first launched in 1962, according to the CIA’s announcement. The first unclassified companion version was released in 1971, and was renamed The World Factbook a decade later, per the announcement.
After the World Factbook officially went online on the CIA.gov website in 1997, it gained millions of visits annually, according to the agency.
“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 CIA wrote in the announcement.
The World Factbook provided information on a variety of topics, including history, government, economy, communications, the environment and other global issues, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The online resource became a popular source of information for various individuals, such as journalists, trivia enthusiasts and college students seeking information for essays, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
In April 2025, CIA Director John Ratcliffe vowed to “eliminate” the “well-documented politicization that has taken place in the intelligence community,” Fox News reported. Moreover, the CIA is reportedly planning to slash more than 1,000 jobs over the next few years amid the Trump administration’s ongoing push to downsize federal agencies.
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