The Empire of Birchester is a tiny, safe nation, notable for its compulsory military service, irreverence towards religion, and stringent health and safety legislation. The democratic population of 12 million Birchesterians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The medium-sized, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Healthcare, and Education. The average income tax rate is 44.9%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The developing Birchesterian economy, worth 394 billion quid a year, is led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Automobile Manufacturing, Cheese Exports, and Furniture Restoration. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 32,915 quid, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Some say that Leader can't handle the truth but can handle truth-seekers, the government is financing an extremely costly war against malaria, commercial jingles are the nation's greatest export, and CEOs are forced to cut coupons during important conference calls to make ends meet. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Birchester's national animal is the minions, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Birchester is ranked 234,387^th in the world and 129^th in The Kodiak Republic for Largest Manufacturing Sector, scoring 4,447.08 on the Gooback-Jerbs Productivity Index.