The Community of Casterbrious is a large, genial nation, renowned for its lack of airports, irreverence towards religion, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 124 million Casterbrions 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 government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded, outspoken morass — juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Education, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 78.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Casterbrion economy, worth 2.57 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 20,731 Pandaks, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The nation's skies are now a wasteland, the nation's leading climatologists are investigating animal flatulence in efforts to reduce methane emissions, children are brainwashed at a young age to accept "love and peace!" as a way of life, and the acceptance of acupuncture and other alternative therapies has needled the scientific community. 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 176,462^nd in the world and 101^st in Refugia for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring 101.72 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.