The Most Excellent Empire of Picairn is a colossal, socially progressive nation, ruled by Emperor Menellia I with a fair hand, and renowned for its smutty television, sprawling nuclear power plants, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 9.133 billion Picairnians are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The medium-sized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Stormridge. The average income tax rate is 98.2%.

The frighteningly efficient Picairnian economy, worth a remarkable 2,347 trillion Dollars a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Tourism, and Arms Manufacturing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an amazing 256,989 Dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Libraries are now installed with jacuzzis and mini-bars, judicial robes are the country's hottest fashion trend, welfare recipients are milking the government for all they've got, and billions of Dollars are spent to take high-quality photos of the Phoenix Nebula. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Picairn's national animal is the Phoenix, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is Secularism.

Picairn is ranked 5,829^th in the world and 230^th in The North Pacific for Most Advanced Public Education, scoring 14,217.69 on the Edu-tellignce® Test Score.