The State of Hickorystick is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its smutty television and stringent health and safety legislation. The hard-nosed, democratic population of 34.104 billion Hickorystickians enjoy extensive civil rights and enjoy a level of social equality free from the usual accompanying government corruption.

The tiny, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Industry, and Welfare. The average income tax rate is 9.5%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The enormous but inefficient Hickorystickian economy, worth a remarkable 1,311 trillion betales a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Trout Farming, Retail, and Book Publishing. Black market activity is notable. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 38,454 betales, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Programmes of questionable content are shown at peak-hours, citizens are bombarded with advertising from their compulsory minature radios, the government is avowedly atheist, and citizens are allowed to rise or fall based on their own merits. Crime is relatively low. Hickorystick's national animal is the deer, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Hickorystick is ranked 171,922^nd in the world and 4^th in Union of South Africa for Most Advanced Public Education, scoring 1,028.43 on the Edu-tellignce® Test Score.