The Kingdom of Scandalia is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by King Stephen I with an iron fist, and remarkable for its compulsory military service, avant-garde cinema, and complete lack of prisons. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, devout population of 43.351 billion Scandalians are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The large, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Fort Charles. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 87.4%.

The frighteningly efficient Scandalian economy, worth a remarkable 5,850 trillion glass beads a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Tourism, and Retail. Average income is an impressive 134,947 glass beads, but there is an enormous disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 738,789 per year while the poor average 12,577, a ratio of 58.7 to 1.

Politicians live in luxury, minor parties are virtually absent in Parliament, mums always ask their three-year-olds for permission before hugging them, and ancestry test results arrive bundled with patent applications. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Scandalia's national animal is the skunk, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Christianity.

Scandalia is ranked 21,134^th in the world and 13^th in The Scandalian Alliance for Highest Food Quality, scoring 113.47 on the Meeshlin-Starr Index.