The 2010 CIA World Factbook

"The 2010 CIA World Factbook" by the United States Central Intelligence Agency is a reference publication written in the early 21st century. This comprehensive annual document aggregates and presents a wealth of information on global nations, including their geography, demographics, government structures, economies, and military statistics. It serves both policymakers and the wider public, aiming to provide an authoritative source of knowledge and statistics regarding international affairs. At the start of the report, the introduction outlines updates and new features from the previous edition, such as enhanced visual content and additional data fields across various categories, including economy and geography. The beginning also emphasizes the importance of the Factbook as a unique repository of international data, accessible to government officials, researchers, and the general public. Importantly, the Factbook aims to clarify statistical information about different countries, offering a guide for readers seeking to understand the world's various geopolitical landscapes. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

The Central Intelligence Agency, known informally as the Agency, metonymously as Langley and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT) and conducting covert action through its Directorate of Operations. The agency is headquartered in the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia.