The Federation of Willow-Creek is a huge, cultured nation, ruled by Chancellor James Hale with a fair hand, and remarkable for its sprawling nuclear power plants, irreverence towards religion, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, hard-working, democratic population of 871 million Willow-Creekians enjoy a sensible mix of personal and economic freedoms, while the political process is open and the people's right to vote held sacrosanct.

The relatively small government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Stratford. The average income tax rate is 21.7%.

The strong Willow-Creekian economy, worth 68.1 trillion Credits a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Retail, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 78,240 Credits, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.8 times as much as the poorest.

Prime commercial land is being swamped with archaeological teams, political gridlock ensues as even the most innocuous legislation is vetoed by the Supreme Court for potential civil rights violations, most ambassadors from Willow-Creek retire only a few years after being appointed, and Chancellor James Hale has just been declared ruler of Willow-Creek in an international press conference. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Willow-Creek's national animal is the Eagle, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Willow-Creek is ranked 30,162^nd in the world and 592^nd in the West Pacific for Smartest Citizens, with 48.31 quips per hour.