The Republic of Hyphen is a colossal, socially progressive nation, notable for its pith helmet sales, sprawling nuclear power plants, and absence of drug laws. The compassionate, cynical population of 5.639 billion Hyphenians are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

The enormous government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Capolity. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 72.9%.

The frighteningly efficient Hyphenian economy, worth 500 trillion Pacific Dollars a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is mostly made up of the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology and Book Publishing. Average income is 88,724 Pacific Dollars, with the richest citizens earning 6.8 times as much as the poorest.

Small children are learning a lot of new words from a teacher with Tourette Syndrome, there's some really clean windows in Hyphenian houses, human sacrifice to the metaphorical altar of Mammon ensures national prosperity, and Air Hyphen is rumored to receive more government funding than the Hyphenian Air Force. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Hyphen's national animal is the dragon, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is Flemingovianism.

Hyphen is ranked 28,920^th in the world and 1,102^nd in The North Pacific for Most Cultured, scoring 81 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.