Location: Europe

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Principality of Seingalt is a massive, safe nation, ruled by Claude Dupin with an even hand, and remarkable for its devotion to social welfare. Its hard-nosed population of 2.324 billion have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defence, and Education. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ouranoupolis. The average income tax rate is 97%. The private sector is almost wholly made up of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out.

Nudity is frowned upon, birds and children's kites are regularly brought down by anti-aircraft fire, ethnic minorities are often refused admission to some of the nation's best schools, and protests are prohibited from blocking traffic. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Seingalt's national animal is the lion, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, its national religion is Catholicism, and its currency is the sestertius.

Seingalt is ranked 477th in Europe and 98,658th in the world for Shortest Average Lifespan, scoring -34 on the Bus Surprisal Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and