The Commonwealth of Latstat is a huge, cultured nation, notable for its compulsory military service, multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, and ban on automobiles. The compassionate, democratic population of 870 million Latstatians love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Welfare. The average income tax rate is 73.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Latstatian economy, worth 67.7 trillion Credits 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, Trout Farming, Arms Manufacturing, and Retail. 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 77,803 Credits, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The people are famous throughout the region for their perfect yellow teeth, undergrads find their professors' mushroom experiments less psychedelic than expected, citizens are required to report any and all incidents of prayer to their local Religious Affairs Officer, and prolonged government investigations are a common revenge tactic among spurned significant others. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Latstat's national animal is the Tailor Bird, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Latstat is ranked 38,667^th in the world and 117^th in Starlight for Longest Average Lifespans, with 87.63 years.