Whenever I want to quickly understand an unfamiliar country, piecemeal searching tends to cost more effort than it's worth: information is scattered, definitions are inconsistent, and years are muddled, making it hard to assemble a complete picture. So I put together the prompt below, which breaks a country down into seven dimensions and hundreds of sub-items—from geography and climate to marriage and fertility, from politics and law to housing and prices—aiming to be both comprehensive and quantifiable.
Usage is simple: copy the content below, add the country you're curious about at the top (e.g. "Please generate a country card for Finland"), and send it to any AI with web access or knowledge retrieval. It will follow this framework and output a structured "country card," item by item.
Country Card
Nature & Geography
Geography: latitude/longitude (time zone), area, terrain, coastline, major rivers and lakes, forest coverage, share of arable land
Cities: capital, major metro areas / largest and second-largest cities, capital's share of national population, livability
Resources: oil, natural gas, minerals, water resources
Climate: climate type, temperature, humidity (dew point), rainfall, sunlight (UV intensity, day/night length), seasonal characteristics, extreme weather (typhoons, blizzards, earthquakes, auroras, etc.)
Ecology: trees, flowers, birds, wildlife, national parks, agriculture and local foods
People & Ethnicity
Population: population, density, median age, aging rate, life expectancy, happiness index, Human Development Index
Marriage & relationships: average marriage age, divorce rate, share of births outside marriage, premarital sex rate, gender equality index, division of childcare, elder care arrangements
Fertility: fertility rate, average age at childbirth, cost of raising a child
Ethnicity: majority ethnic group, minorities, immigrant share
Appearance: skin color, hair color, eye color, height
Health: smoking rate, drinking rate, obesity rate, myopia rate, depression rate, suicide rate, top 5 causes of death
History & Civilization
History: founding date and founder, dynastic/regime changes, national chronology (10 key milestones), industrialization process, major wars, biggest changes in the past 30 years, most famous historical figures
Religion: how religion spread, religious composition, breakdown of specific denominations
Values: individualism/collectivism, high/low trust, power distance, social customs (social circle size, sense of time, queuing/appointment culture), funeral customs
Culture: representative music genres, representative film/TV works, representative authors, representative games, representative anime/IP, major festivals and their descriptions
Language: official language(s), language family tree, writing system, sources of loanwords, common second languages, English proficiency
National symbols: flag, emblem, anthem, national flower, national bird, national animal, national colors, what the nation calls itself
The State Apparatus
Politics: system of government (e.g. presidential/parliamentary), state structure (federal/unitary), main party spectrum (left/right), current ruling coalition, date of next election, Corruption Perceptions Index, trust in government/police/media
Law: legal system (statutory/customary), legality of pornography/prostitution/gambling/drugs, marriage (same-sex marriage, divorce regime, prenuptial property), reproduction (abortion, IVF, surrogacy), alcohol (purchase age, sales hours), internet (VPN, speech restrictions, data privacy regime), gun regulations and ownership rate
Defense: number of active-duty personnel, military spending as a share of GDP, conscription (and duration), nuclear weapons, military power ranking, crime rate
Diplomacy: foreign relations (US, China, Russia, EU), geopolitical risk
International influence: role in the UN, memberships in major international organizations, passport ranking, global soft power ranking
Development: national life cycle (reasons for its rise, current strengths, current problems, future challenges); how do they tell their own history? What is the national trauma? What is the national pride? What is the most sensitive topic? How do ordinary people view the future?
Economic System
Macro: GDP (and its growth rate, GDP per capita, GNI, PMI), main currency (exchange rate vs. USD); debt ratios by sector, fiscal deficit as a share of GDP, government debt/GDP; income/wealth Gini coefficients, social mobility index; central bank interest rate, inflation (PPI, CPI), unemployment rate & poverty rate
Demand side: consumption/investment/exports as a share of GDP, Engel coefficient, total stock market cap/GDP, FDI flows and stock/GDP, trade surplus/deficit, trade dependence
Industry: industrial structure (primary/secondary/tertiary), top three industries, 5 global brands & companies, urbanization rate, corporate ownership, main export products, startup climate, digital nomad scene, number of multinational corporations
Taxes: personal tax (effective combined rate on ~US$150k income), social security contributions, corporate income tax, consumption tax (VAT/GST, tax-inclusive/exclusive)
Daily Life
Work: working hours, annual leave, number of public holidays, average/median wage, minimum wage
Housing: home prices (price-to-income ratio, mortgage rates), rent (rental rate, price-to-rent ratio), rental pitfalls, types of home ownership, land tenure system, housing types (e.g. apartment/townhouse/detached), living space per capita, homeownership rate
Transport: public transit system (metro, tram, bus, rail, high-speed rail), driving (left/right, international driving permit), traffic-light usage, commute time, traffic fines, car-free-living friendliness
Education: literacy rate, childcare system, educational tracking system, distribution of student holidays, study pressure, international student assessments, higher-education rate, notable universities and their rankings, education subsidies, talent inflow/outflow, share studying abroad
Healthcare: how seeing a doctor works, healthcare subsidies, cost of emergency medical care
Welfare: elder care, unemployment protection, childcare support (childcare subsidies, maternity leave, paternity leave), pension system
Prices: prices of a McDonald's combo, milk, eggs, etc., benchmarked against a major reference economy (e.g. the US)
Infrastructure: penetration of water/electricity/gas/internet and the main providers, electricity generation mix, energy import dependence, food self-sufficiency rate, pet ownership rate, pet-friendliness, pregnancy-friendliness
Digitalization: internet speed, mobile-payment penetration, digital identity system, government digitalization, AI adoption, e-commerce penetration, food-delivery penetration
Food: breakfast/lunch/dinner times, share of vegetarians, staple foods, protein sources, supermarket observations, what people eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner, dietary taboos & special ingredients, beverage consumption and notable drinks (coffee, tea, beer, soda, specialty drinks, dairy)
Recreation: common leisure activities, the 3 most popular sports
Travel & Experience
Landmarks: urban planning (high/low density, degree of TOD), architectural style, landmarks (religious such as churches, political such as parliament, commercial such as the CBD, educational such as universities, cultural such as museums, natural scenery)
Safety: crime rate, women's safety, nighttime safety, areas to avoid, emergency numbers, attitude toward foreign tourists
Visa (for foreign nationals): visa-free or not and length of stay, work-visa thresholds, years required for permanent residency, years required for naturalization, dual-citizenship policy
Cross-country comparison: 3 most surprising things, 3 things most worth learning from, 3 things hardest to adjust to
Tips: power outlets (voltage, type), whether tap water is drinkable and its quality, toilet usage, prohibitions, current weather and clothing advice, useful phrases (hello, thank you, sorry), taboos & customs, tipping culture, dress code, souvenir recommendations
Other: 3 most representative experiences; 1–10 score for: suitability for tourism, living, working, retirement, and revisiting
Finally, give a one-sentence portrait of the country and a set of national keywords.
For each data point, note the year, source, whether it's an estimate, the city/national scope, and whether it's affected by statistical definitions.
You must strictly cover every item, every sub-item, and the content inside each sub-item's parentheses. Use quantitative data wherever possible, and where data exists, provide a global ranking or comparison whenever possible.