now includes an
Overview briefly describing a country's economy. New entries added
under People, Government, and Communications.

1990 - The Government section revised and considerably expanded with
new entries.

1991 - A new International Organizations and Groups appendix added.
Factbook size reaches 405 pages.

1992 - Twenty new successor state entries replace those of the
Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. New countries are respectively:
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan; and Bosnia and Hercegovina,
Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia. Number of
nations in the Factbook rises to 188.

1993 - Czechoslovakia's split necessitates new Czech Republic and
Slovakia entries. New Eritrea entry added after it secedes from
Ethiopia. Substantial enhancements made to Geography section.

1994 - Two new appendices address Selected International
Environmental Agreements. The gross domestic product (GDP) of most
developing countries changed to a purchasing power parity (PPP)
basis rather than an exchange rate basis. Factbook size up to 512
pages.

1995 - The GDP of all countries now presented on a PPP basis. New
appendix lists estimates of GDP on an exchange rate basis.
Communications category split; Railroads, Highways, Inland
waterways, Pipelines, Merchant marine, and Airports entries now make
up a new Transportation category. The World Factbook is first
produced on CD-ROM.

1996 - Maps accompanying each entry now present more detail. Flags
also introduced for nearly all entities. Various new entries appear
under Geography and Communications. Factbook abbreviations
consolidated into a new Appendix A. Two new appendices present a
Cross-Reference List of Country Data Codes and a Cross-Reference
List of Hydrogeographic Data Codes. Geographic coordinates added to
Appendix H, Cross-Reference List of Geographic Names. Factbook size
expands by 95 pages in one year to reach 652.

1997 - A special edition for the CIA's 50 th anniversary. A schema
or Guide to Country Profiles introduced. New color maps and flags
now accompany each country profile. Category headings distinguished
by shaded backgrounds. Number of categories expanded to nine - the
current number - with the addition of an Introduction (for only a
few countries) and Transnational Issues (which includes
Disputes-international and Illicit dr