posted on October 11, 2004 12:24:56 PM
For anyone that likes to do research and compare different countries worldwide, The World Fact Book may be of interest. Choose a country and immediately find a map and facts on geography, people, government, economy, military, transportation, etc.
There is also an Appendix with a super list of abbreviations that may be helpful to some.
Some of the info may be out of date by a year or so but the site is updated regularly. Facts can also be googled for more info if one is unsure of latest data.
The Factbook is in the public domain. Accordingly, it may be copied freely without permission of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
posted on October 11, 2004 03:10:54 PM
Bunni, I've used that site for awhile now also but sometimes forget and try to google a certain fact but it's easier to find so much info in one place. Is it the best one out there in that format, or are there other similar ones that you use?
Some of us were having a discussion this morning and we were comparing countries worldwide for population and for imports and exports, debt owing, poverty, etc.
We were surprised to see that it quoted the population below poverty line as 10% in China and 12% in the US and were wondering if China kept some of the information hidden or if the CIA has enough facts to quote that number. Or maybe because China has such a huge population it just seems so much worse there in comparison.
posted on October 11, 2004 06:01:47 PM
Well, you have to remember that China's population is 1,298,847,624, compared to our 293,027,571 so 10% for them is a heck of a lot more than 12% is for us: 129,884,762 to our 29,302,757!
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