The Viltrumite Community of Number 48 is a mammoth, efficient nation, ruled by Max Barry with an iron fist, and remarkable for its fear of technology, keen interest in outer space, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, cynical, devout population of 5.663 billion Foreizians are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, well-organized morass — juggles the competing demands of Defense, Industry, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Arle-Kazarri. The average income tax rate is 73.2%.

The all-consuming Forraxesh economy, worth 334 trillion bobuks a year, is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Uranium Mining and Beef-Based Agriculture. Black market activity is frequent. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 58,987 bobuks, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 4.4 times as much as the poorest.

Exterminators swarm Forraxesh homes, whipping posts and lashes have been transferred to the Historical Museum of Forraxesh Embarrassments, people are more interested in gossip about the private lives of politicians than their policies, and retirement apartments house giggling grannies who delightedly watch blank TVs all day long. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Number 48's national animal is the tiger, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Christianity.

Number 48 is ranked 318,537^th in the world and 14,705^th in Osiris for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring -121.41 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.