Wikipedia:WikiProject Countries

This WikiProject helps develop country-related pages (of all types) and works toward standardizing the formats of sets and types of country-related pages (for example, the sets of Culture of x, Administrative divisions of x, and Navy of x articles, etc. - where "x" is a country name) - and the various types of pages, like stubs, categories, etc.).

Countries that have a featured article status.
Countries that have a good article status.

[edit] What's New?

May 2009

• Please look over the country article sets at Lists by country.
• The country outlines have been moved to article space, where they will get more attention from editors, and where they will be of help to readers. They are still incomplete, and need your attention.
• A set of "Index of" pages has been established for countries. Not all countries have an index in the set yet. You can help by creating them.
• And the tasks from December 2008 still apply.

December 2008

• A huge undertaking is underway to provide easy access to Wikipedia's coverage of country-related topics, and you are all invited. As part of Wikipedia's outline of knowledge being developed by the outline of knowledge WikiProject, a subject outline is being created for every country of the World. A team of editors has been hard at work on these for months, and all the drafts are nearing completion. Come take a look! Because these outlines map out the topics about each country, they serve as wonderful development tools for evaluating coverage of countries (they reveal gaps and expansion patterns). And because they all use a standard format, they are great for comparing countries and country coverage. Contact The Transhumanist    for more details.
• The above outlines have uncovered some major problems in country coverage, and the outline team has been working to correct these. We could sure use your help!

1. Country adjectivals (e.g.: Dutch, Zambian, Peruvian, Taiwanese, etc.) - most of them were just redirected to the corresponding country article, with no coverage.
2. "Demographics of" - this set of articles is in serious need of help
   1. Many of these have no lead
   2. Most of them have the demographic data from the CIA's World Factbook, but for only about half of these pages has this data been wikified. In the rest it is poorly named, poorly formatted, and leadless.
   3. Most of these are missing content, with the CIA data being their only content
3. Country cuisine articles lack a naming standard.
   1. The articles are in the process of being standardized to their country adjectival forms (Japanese cuisine, Italian cuisine, etc.).
   2. A redirect in the name "Cuisine of" is needed to point to each of these articles, to make them easy to find and to link to.
4. Many article types are hard to find because by their very nature they lack standard names. The following sets of redirects need to be created:
   1. "Head of state of"
   2. "Head of government of"
   3. "Humour of"
   4. Countries' "sports" articles
      1. "Sports in" - for many countries, the standard is "Sport in". The reader needs to find these regardless of which form he or she types in.
      2. "Sport in" - for many countries, the standard is "Sports in". The reader needs to find these regardless of which form he or she types in.
      3. common alternatives include "Sport of" and "Sports of". These need redirects for each country.
5. Disambiguation pages are needed for:
   1. "National symbol of"

Your help is greatly needed. For more information, contact The Transhumanist    02:25, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

January 2007

• Request for comment here (/Templates talkpage) are a suggestion for a standard naming, titling and sectioning of "Countries of..." and similar templates – please contribute!

December 2006

• Recently revamped group in September 2006
• Was featured group in Wikipedia Signpost
• Has added templates to over 200 articles (alot more to go!)

[edit] Scope

This WikiProject is focused on country coverage (content/gaps) and presentation (navigation, page naming, layout, formatting) on Wikipedia, especially country articles (articles with countries as their titles), country outlines, and articles with a country in their name (such as Demographics of Germany), but also all other country-related articles, stubs, categories, and lists pertaining to countries.

[edit] Content

There are many gaps in the information provided by Wikipedia on countries. We need to identify and help fill those gaps.

[edit] Navigation

This WikiProject helps Wikipedia's navigation-related WikiProjects (Wikipedia:WikiProject Outline of knowledge, WikiProject Categories, WikiProject Portals, etc.) develop and maintain the navigation structures (menus, outlines, lists, templates, and categories) pertaining to countries. And since most countries share the same subtopics ("Cities of", "Cuisine of", "Religion in", "Prostitution in", etc.), it is advantageous to standardize their naming, and their order of presentation in Wikipedia's indexes and table-of-contents-like pages.

[edit] Formatting

Many country and country-related articles have been extensively developed, but much systematic or similar information about many countries is not presented in a consistent way. Inconsistencies are rampant in article naming, headings, data presented, types of things covered, order of coverage, etc. This WikiProject works towards standardizing page layouts of country-related articles of the same type ("Geography of", "Government of", "Politics of", "Wildlife of", etc.).

We are also involved with the standardization of country-related stubs, standardizing the structure of country-related lists and categories (the category trees for countries should be identical for the most part, as most countries share the same subcategories - though there will be some differences of course).

[edit] Structure

This structure is advisory only, and should not be enforced against the wishes of those actually working on the article in question.

[edit] Lead section

The article should start with a good introduction, giving name of the country, location in the world, bordering countries, seas and the like. Also give other names by which the country may still be known (for example Holland, Persia). Also, add a few facts about the country, the things that it is known for (for example the mentioning of windmills in the Netherlands article).

If the etymology of a country's name is too long to explain in the lead section, split it out into a separate section (titled "Name" or similar). Naming disputes can also be handled in separate sections.

See also: Wikipedia:Lead section

[edit] Facts table

Next, there is a table with quick facts about the country. A template for the table can be found at the bottom of this page.

Although the table can be moved out to the template namespace (to e.g. [[Template:CountryName Infobox]]) and thus easen the look of the edit page, most Wikipedians still disapprove as of now, see the talk page.

The contents are as follows:

• The official long-form name of the country in the local language is to go on top as the caption. If there are several official names (languages), list all (if reasonably feasible). The conventional long-form name (in English), if it differs from the local long-form name, should follow the local name(s).
• The conventional short-form name of the country, recognised by the majority of the English-speaking world; ideally, this should also be used for the name of the article.
• A picture of the national flag. You can find flags at the List of flags. A smaller version should be included in the table itself, a larger-sized version in a page titled Flag of <country>, linked to via the "In Detail" cell. Instead of two different images, use the autothumbnail function that wiki offers.
• A picture of the national coat of arms. A good source is required for this, but not yet available. It should be no more than 125 pixels in width.
• Below the flag and coat of arms is room for the national motto, often displayed on the coat of arms (with translation, if necessary).
• The official language(s) of the country.
• The political status. Specify if it is a sovereign state or a dependent territory.
• The capital city, or cities. Explain the differences if there are multiple capital cities using a footnote (see example at the Netherlands).
• If the data on the population is recent and reliable, add the largest city of the country.
• Land area: The area of the country in square kilometres (km²) and square miles (sq mi) with the world-ranking of this country. Also add the % of water, which can be calculated from the data in the Geography article (make it negligible if ~0%).
• Population: The number of inhabitants and the world-ranking; also include a year for this estimate (should be 2000 for now, as that is the date of the ranking). For the population density you can use the numbers now available.
• GDP: The amount of the gross domestic product on ppp base and the world ranking. also include the amount total and per head.
• HDI: Information pertaining to the UN Human Development Index – the value, year (of value), rank (with ordinal), and category (colourised as per the HDI country list).
• Currency; the name of the local currency. Use the pipe if the currency name is also used in other countries: [[Australian dollar|dollar]].
• Time zone(s); the time zone or zones in which the country is relative to UTC
• National anthem; the name of the National anthem and a link to the article about it.
• Internet TLD; the top-level domain code for this country.
• Calling Code; the international Calling Code used for dialing this country.

[edit] Sections

The rest of the article should consist of a few short paragraphs. These paragraphs should give an outline of the history/politics/etc. of the country and link to a full article on them. Many of the CIA World Factbook subpages can be used as a starter for these full articles.

The heading should look like:

== Politics ==
{{main|Politics of the Netherlands}}

The sections are:

• History - A brief outline of the major events in the country's history (about 4 to 6 paragraphs should do), including at least a paragraph on the current events going on there. Link to "History of X".
• Politics - Short overview of the current governmental system, possibly previous forms, some short notes on the parliament. Link to article "Politics of X", and also to "Foreign relations of X".
• (Subdivisions) - Quick overview of the administrative subdivisions of the country. Name the section after the first level of subdivisions (and subsequent levels, if available) (e.g. provinces, states, departments, districts, etc.) and give the English equivalent name, when available. Also include overseas possessions. Link to "(subdivisions) of X". This section should also include an overview map of the country and subdivisions, if available. The CIA World Factbook Maps can be used as a basis for the map, but plenty of other sources are available.
• Geography - Quick description of the country's main features, climate, . Include link to "Geography of X".
• Economy - Something brief about the country's economy, major industries, bit of economic history, major trade partners, a tad comparison etc. Link to "Economy of X".
• Demographics - Mention the languages spoken, the major religions, some well known properties of the people of X, by which they are known. Link to article "Demographics of X".
• Culture - Give a short summary of the country's specific forms of art (anything from painting to film) and its best known artists. Link to article "Culture of X".
• See also - a list of links to all the other topics closely related to the country. The four other default CIA subpages should be listed here (communications, transportation, military, foreign relations)
• External links - Links to (official) websites about the country.

[edit] Holidays

A table with the holidays as celebrated in the country can be placed in the Public holidays in X article. Template for table is listed below.

• Date - the date of the holiday
• English name - the English name, translation
• Local name - the name in the country's language(s)
• Remarks - short descriptions or remarks on the holidays (place longer any discussion in the sections below the table)

[edit] Footers

As noted at Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and series boxes the number of templates at the bottom of any article should be kept to a minimum. Country pages generally have footers that link to pages for countries in their geographic region. Footers for international organizations are not added to country pages, but they rather can go on subpages such as "Economy of..." and "Foreign relations of..." Categories for some of these organizations are also sometimes added. Templates for supranational organizations like the European Union and CARICOM are permitted. A list of the footers that have been created can be found at Wikipedia:WikiProject Countries/Templates/Navboxes, however note that many of these are not currently in use.

[edit] Goals

1. Provide a centralized resource guide of all related topics in Wikipedia, as well as spearhead the effort to improve and develop them.
2. Create uniform templates that serve to identify all related articles as part of this project, as well as stub templates to englobe all related stubs under specific categories.
3. Standardize articles about different nations, cultures, holidays, and geography.
4. Verify historical accuracy and neutrality of all articles within the scope of the project.
5. Create, expand and cleanup related articles.

[edit] General Strategy and Discussion forum

If possible, the natural place to be used as the discussion forum is the project's talk page. Whenever needed, discussion can be moved to a more appropriate place regarding a particular matter.