The Commonwealth of Sapient Mushrooms is a gargantuan, socially progressive nation, renowned for its avant-garde cinema, compulsory military service, and irreverence towards religion. The hard-nosed, democratic population of 16.919 billion mushrooms 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 Administration, Defense, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Plump Helmet. The average income tax rate is 27.6%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The large but inefficient fungal economy, worth 712 trillion toadstools a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Cheese Exports industry, with major contributions from Retail, Uranium Mining, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 42,126 toadstools, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.0 times as much as the poorest.

A PhD just ain't what it used to be, studio executives abandon tragic stories of star-crossed lovers because "it's been done", the government has declined to declare any particular religion as its 'official' one, and even the most lowly council pen-pusher has the same political power as a senior minister. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Sapient Mushrooms's national animal is the spore, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Sapient Mushrooms is ranked 132,182^nd in the world and 6^th in Sapient Beings for Lowest Crime Rates, with 62.53 law-abiding acts per hour.