The year 2004 marks the 57th anniversary of the establishment of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the 61st year of continuous basic intelligence support to the US Government by “The World Factbook” and its two predecessor programs.
After its creation, the CIA assumed operational responsibility for the Joint Army Navy Intelligence Studies (JANIS). On Jan. 13, 1948, the National Security Council started the National Intelligence Survey (NIS) program as a peacetime replacement for the wartime JANIS program. Before adequate NIS country sections could be produced, government agencies had to develop more comprehensive gazetteers and better maps. The US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) compiled the names; the US Department of the Interior produced the gazetteers; and the CIA produced the maps.
The Factbook was developed as an annual summary and update to the encyclopedic National Intelligence Survey (NIS) studies. The first classified Factbook was published in August 1962 and the first unclassified version was published in June 1971. The NIS program was terminated in 1973 except for the Factbook, map, and gazetteer components. The 1975 Factbook was the first to be made available to the public.
The Factbook covers 268 nations, dependent areas and other miscellaneous entries. The information in the printed version of the latest Factbook was updated as of January 2004, but in the online version, available, searchable and downloadable from www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html the information is updated as frequently as weekly. In the 2004 edition of the Factbook, revision of some individual country maps, first introduced in the 2001 edition, is continued. Several regional maps have also been updated to reflect boundary changes and place name spelling changes.