The Factbook Brief
A weekly letter from the editorial desk
A map, a number, and Ghana
First Brief: India leads the 2025 population table, the World is 8.06 billion, and Accra is our teaching capital.
This is the first Factbook Brief: one sitting, a few hard numbers from the 2025 edition, and two doors — the News Desk for what changed, the Notebook for how to cite it. Export the letter as a PDF if you want it on a desk that is not a browser.
The chart of the week
Eight countries hold the first rungs of the 2025 population table. India and China are a near-tie at planetary scale; everyone else is a different sport.
World Factbook 2025 rankings · Population. Full table: rankings.
Postcard from Accra
We are using Ghana as the house example this month because the profile is rich and the comparisons are honest. Real GDP (PPP) $276 billion. Per-capita estimates climbing $6,700 → $7,100 (2022–2024, 2021 dollars). If your class only opens one African profile this week, make it this one.
From the other rooms
- News Desk. The 2025 edition is live — 45 years on the shelf, 1.62 million records, and why India is now first.
- Notebook. When two numbers share a field — Ghana’s $8,020 vs $7,100, and what to do when the World Bank arrives.
Next week we will pick one ranking that moved and one field that looks like a contradiction but is not. Until then: cite the year.