The Kingdom of Northwind is a mammoth, genial nation, ruled by First Minister Andrea Stirling with a fair hand, and notable for its compulsory military service and absence of drug laws. The compassionate, hard-working, democratic, devout population of 8.923 billion Northwinders enjoy a sensible mix of personal and economic freedoms, while the political process is open and the people's right to vote held sacrosanct.

The relatively small government juggles the competing demands of Spirituality, Education, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of McKenna. The average income tax rate is 10.2%.

The strong Northwindish economy, worth 594 trillion euromarks a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Retail industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Book Publishing, and Tourism. Average income is 66,655 euromarks, with the richest citizens earning 5.1 times as much as the poorest.

Planespotters are emigrating in droves, the nation's reinforced coffee tables are constructed to survive an atomic blast, children aren't allowed to chew their pencils until they get home from school, and economists claim no news is good news. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Northwind's national animal is the unicorn, which can occasionally be seen sifting through garbage in the nation's cities, and its national religion is New Avalon Catholic Church.

Northwind is ranked 260,226^th in the world and 1^st in Alba for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring -6.45 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.