The District of -9- is a gargantuan, safe nation, ruled by Madame Neuf with an even hand, and remarkable for its complete lack of prisons and devotion to social welfare. The quiet, industrious population of 29.543 billion -9-ians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The medium-sized government prioritizes Welfare, with Healthcare, Education, and Social Policy also on the agenda. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Nineia. The average income tax rate is 39.0%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The large but inefficient -9-ian economy, worth 986 trillion Euros a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Woodchip Exports, Trout Farming, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 33,399 Euros, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

All tariffs have been abolished, reports of arson have doubled since the introduction of a privatised fire protection service, -9- has designated Nineia as its capital city, and Madame Neuf has just been declared ruler of -9- in an international press conference. Crime is totally unknown. -9-'s national animal is the goat and its national religion is Jayism.

-9- is ranked 125,508^th in the world and 1^st in The Grapevine for Most Eco-Friendly Governments, scoring 603.71 on the Dolphin Recycling Awareness Index.