The Republic of Laundry is a huge, cultured nation, remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, state-planned economy, and soft-spoken computers. The hard-working, democratic, devout population of 894 million Laundryians 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.

The relatively small government juggles the competing demands of Education, Defense, and Law & Order. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 9.6%.

The strong Laundryian economy, worth 63.8 trillion marks a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is broadly diversified, is led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with major contributions from Basket Weaving, Pizza Delivery, and Automobile Manufacturing. Average income is 71,370 marks, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 218,771 per year while the poor average 18,020, a ratio of 12.1 to 1.

The nation's new Mylab space station is notorious for being the loneliest place above the planet, 100-year-old politicians are now a thing of the past, Laundry has designated Laundry City as its capital city, and lawyers spend as much time preparing their make-up as they do their briefs. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Laundry's national animal is the cow, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Laundry is ranked 315,317^th in the world and 1^st in Bananalandia Supreme for Most Eco-Friendly Governments, scoring -5.48 on the Dolphin Recycling Awareness Index.