The Community of Casterbrious is a very large, safe nation, remarkable for its lack of airports, compulsory vegetarianism, and irreverence towards religion. The compassionate, democratic population of 224 million Casterbrions are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded, outspoken morass — juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Welfare, and Education. The average income tax rate is 83.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Casterbrion economy, worth 5.83 trillion Pandaks a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Furniture Restoration. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 26,036 Pandaks, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Discarded pennies litter the streets, the amount welfare recipients spend on fertilizer has exploded, clothing with a scarlet S is popular among repentant body shamers, and corrupt paupers spend taxpayer Pandaks on liquor and tobacco. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Casterbrious's national animal is the Tafelshrew, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Casterbrious is ranked 280,189^th in the world and 167^th in Refugia for Largest Pizza Delivery Sector, scoring -8.38 on the Pepperoni Propulsion Productivity Index.