CIA World Factbook Archive
Data archive in Learning
Recommended as a searchable, exportable archive of Factbook editions from 1990 to 2025, easier to browse than PDFs; the common caveat is wrong country links.
Recommended as a searchable, exportable archive of Factbook editions from 1990 to 2025, easier to browse than PDFs; the common caveat is wrong country links.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 76%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Easier to browse than PDFs
“This is such a breath of fresh air. Dense data should be presented like a book”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable” “imo superior than flipping through a PDF”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable” Clean, readable design
“This is such a breath of fresh air. Dense data should be presented like a book”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable” “I love the current design. Personally, it seems to be just perfect.”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable” Creator open and responsive
“Good on the creator for being responsive instead of defensive about the bug reports.”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable” “Really appreciate that you put all of your backend work into the open.”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Country links go to wrong entries
“the link to the entry for “Germany” will take you to the entry for the Gambia”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable” “clicking Australia goes to American Samoa, similar issue with some others”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable” “will take you to the entry for the Gambia for every year I have checked”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable” - Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable”
- Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: CIA World Factbook Archive (1990–2025), searchable and exportable”
What people said
20 of the 25 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“in practice it is little more than something to pique their curiosity—a toy.”
“Wonderful project. Thank you for the preservation!”
“Just one example of an article I didn't see and never would have thought to look for without that page.”
“I love the current design. Personally, it seems to be just perfect.”
“This is such a breath of fresh air. Dense data should be presented like a book”
“Small text, low contrast, and long unbroken paragraphs are not design preferences.”
“Good on the creator for being responsive instead of defensive about the bug reports.”
“This is actually an excellent dataset to test GraphRAG capabilities.”
“The world population seems to be double counted.”
“will take you to the entry for the Gambia for every year I have checked”
“the link to the entry for “Germany” will take you to the entry for the Gambia”
“clicking on Austria takes you to Australia instead!”
“There is a bug in the time series charts.”
“nice to see it already done”
“Really appreciate that you put all of your backend work into the open.”
“found a bug: Australia links to American Samoa in 2025 archive.”
“clicking Australia goes to American Samoa, similar issue with some others”
“imo superior than flipping through a PDF”
“Site loads very slowly for me.”
“I like the timeline feature.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.