The Democratic States of Grunow is a massive, safe nation, remarkable for its ubiquitous missile silos, public floggings, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate population of 1.297 billion Grunowians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The medium-sized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Grundsleydale. The average income tax rate is 54.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Grunowian economy, worth 153 trillion dollars a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology, Book Publishing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 118,561 dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Punitive tariffs protect local industry, it's illegal to be caught on tape, many whiskies taste suspiciously like automobile radiators, and travel bureaus double as recruiting centers for national intelligence agencies. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Grunow's national animal is the Hammerhead Shark, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans.

Grunow is ranked 16,938^th in the world and 717^th in The North Pacific for Most Cultured, scoring 98 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.