The Republic of January 1st is a very large, safe nation, remarkable for its avowedly heterosexual populace, state-planned economy, and suspicion of poets. The compassionate, devout population of 325 million January 1stians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The minute government, or what there is of one, juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Education, and Social Policy. The average income tax rate is 5.4%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but underdeveloped January 1stian economy, worth 5.92 trillion Cards a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient, quite specialized black market in Information Technology, Woodchip Exports, Furniture Restoration, and Basket Weaving. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 18,200 Cards, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Exiles see that the line where the sky meets the sea is just clouds and rain, patch v22.1705 - all developers are now paid for work, flash floods that dams could have controlled regularly ravage small towns in mountain valleys, and old people living in plastic bubbles complain about a new type of social isolation. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. January 1st's national animal is the Card.

January 1st is ranked 30,748^th in the world and 2^nd in Calendar for Most Compassionate Citizens, scoring 51.46 on the Kitten Softness Rating.