The Most Serene Republic of Waiting is a mammoth, efficient nation, remarkable for its irreverence towards religion, suspicion of poets, and spontaneously combusting cars. The hard-nosed, hard-working, democratic population of 7.169 billion Waitingians are free to succeed or fail in life on their own merits; the successful tend to enjoy an opulent (but moralistic) lifestyle, while the failures can be seen crowding out most jails.

The tiny, pro-business government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Education. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 7.5%.

The very strong Waitingian economy, worth 462 trillion Snowflakes a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with major contributions from Trout Farming, Cheese Exports, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. Average income is 64,461 Snowflakes, but there is a large disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 243,644 per year while the poor average 11,866, a ratio of 20.5 to 1.

Political parties are banned from advertising and receiving private donations, practising saying 'how now brown cow' is an essential part of holiday planning, student exchange programs are in trouble as everyone wants to leave but no-one wants to come, and the government tells its citizens to 'forgive and forget'. Crime is moderate. Waiting's national animal is the Koala.

Waiting is ranked 108,410^th in the world and 4,561^st in Balder for Largest Populations, with 7.17 billion capita.