Here, let us take a look at the Geography of Honduras. Has only a short Pacific coast but a long Caribbean shoreline, including the virtually uninhabited eastern Mosquito Coast. Mother's mean age at first birth is 20.3 years (2011/12 est.) (Note: data represents median age a first birth among women 25-49), whereas, the Maternal mortality ratio is 72 deaths/100,000 live births (2020 est.)
Location | Central America, bordering the Caribbean Sea, between Guatemala and Nicaragua and bordering the Gulf of Fonseca (North Pacific Ocean), between El Salvador and Nicaragua |
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Geographic coordinates | 15 00 N, 86 30 W |
Map references | Central America and the Caribbean |
Tarrain | mostly mountains in interior, narrow coastal plains |
Natural Resources | timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal, fish, hydropower |
Natural Hazards | frequent, but generally mild, earthquakes; extremely susceptible to damaging hurricanes and floods along the Caribbean coast |
Irrigated Land | 900 sq km (2012) |
Major rivers (by length in km) | |
Major aquifers | |
Land Boundaries | 1,575 km |
Border Countries | Guatemala 244 km; El Salvador 391 km; Nicaragua 940 km |
Coastline | 823 km (Caribbean Sea 669 km, Gulf of Fonseca 163 km) |
Climate | subtropical in lowlands, temperate in mountains |
Area | |
Total Area | |
Land Area | 111,890 sq km |
Water Area | 200 sq km |
comparative Area | slightly larger than Tennessee |
Maritime Claims | |
Territorial sea | 12 nm |
Contiguous zone | 24 nm |
Exclusive economic zone | 200 nm |
Continental shelf | natural extension of territory or to 200 nm |
Elevations | |
Highest point | Cerro Las Minas 2,870 m |
Lowest point | Caribbean Sea 0 m |
Mean elevation | 684 m |
Land Use | |
Agricultural land | 28.8% (2018 est.) |
Agricultural land: arable land | arable land: 9.1% (2018 est.) |
Agricultural land: permanent crops | permanent crops: 4% (2018 est.) |
Agricultural land: permanent pasture | permanent pasture: 15.7% (2018 est.) |
Forest | 45.3% (2018 est.) |
Other | 25.9% (2018 est.) |
Most residents live in the mountainous western half of the country; unlike other Central American nations, Honduras is the only one with an urban population that is distributed between two large centers - the capital of Tegucigalpa and the city of San Pedro Sula; the Rio Ulua valley in the north is the only densely populated lowland area
In Honduras, the different Ethnic groups are such that we have: Mestizo (mixed Indigenous and European) 90%, Indigenous 7%, African descent 2%, White 1%
Population | |
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Pop growth rate | 1.29% (2024 est.) |
Birth rate | 19.9 births/1,000 population (2024 est.) |
Death rate | 5.4 deaths/1,000 population (2024 est.) |
Health expenditure | 9% of GDP (2020) |
Physicians Density | |
Hospital bed Density | 0.6 beds/1,000 population (2017) |
Total fertility rate | 2.33 children born/woman (2024 est.) |
Gross reproduction rate | 1.15 (2024 est.) |
Contraceptive prevalence rate | 69.4% (2019) |
Est married women (ages 15-49) | 53.5% (2023 est.) |
Literacy | age 15 and over can read and write |
Education expenditures | 6.4% of GDP (2020 est.) |
Net Migration rate | -1.7 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2024 est.) |
Nationality | Honduran | Honduran(s) |
Languages | |
Religions | Evangelical 55%, Roman Catholic 33.4%, none 10.1%, unspecified 1.5% (2023 est.) |
Age Structure | |
0-14 years | 28.7% (male 1,378,026/female 1,353,238) |
15-64 years | 65.7% (male 2,980,393/female 3,282,159) |
65 years and over | 5.6% (2024 est.) (male 232,828/female 302,544) |
Dependency Ratios | |
Total dependency ratio | 53.3 |
Youth dependency ratio | 46.9 |
Elderly dependency ratio | 6.4 |
Potential support ratio | 15.5 (2021 est.) |
Median Age | |
Total | 25.7 years (2024 est.) |
Male | 24.8 years |
Female | 26.6 years |
Urbanization | |
Urban population | 60.2% of total population (2023) |
Rate of urbanization | 2.48% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.) |
Major urban areas (Pop) | 1.568 million TEGUCIGALPA (capital), 982,000 San Pedro Sula (2023). |
Sex Ratio | |
At birth | 1.03 male(s)/female |
0-14 years | 1.02 male(s)/female |
15-64 years | 0.91 male(s)/female |
65 years and over | 0.77 male(s)/female |
Total population | 0.93 male(s)/female (2024 est.) |
Infant Motality | |
Total | 15.4 deaths/1,000 live births (2024 est.) |
Male | 17.5 deaths/1,000 live births |
Female | 13.2 deaths/1,000 live births |
Life Expectancy at birth | |
Total population | 73.1 years (2024 est.) |
Male | 69.6 years |
Female | 76.8 years |
Drinking Water Sources | |
Improved: urban | urban: 100% of population |
Improved: rural | rural: 90.7% of population |
Improved: total | total: 96.1% of population |
Unimproved: urban | urban: 0% of population |
Unimproved: rural | rural: 9.3% of population |
Unimproved: total | total: 3.9% of population (2020 est.) |
Sanitation facility acess | |
Improved: urban | urban: 96.7% of population |
Improved: rural | rural: 87.9% of population |
Improved: total | total: 93% of population |
Unimproved: urban | urban: 3.3% of population |
Unimproved: rural | rural: 12.1% of population |
Unimproved: total | total: 7% of population (2020 est.) |
Major Infectious diseases | |
Degree of risk | high (2023) |
Food or waterborne diseases | bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever |
Vectorborne diseases | dengue fever |
Alcohol consumption per capita | |
Total | 2.73 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.) |
Beer | 1.6 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.) |
Wine | 0.04 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.) |
Spirits | 1.09 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.) |
Other alcohols | 0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.) |
Child marriage | |
Women married by age 15 | 9.2% |
Women married by age 18 | 34% |
Men married by age 18 | 10% (2019 est.) |
Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Latin America and has one of the world's highest murder rates. More than half of the population lives in poverty and per capita income is one of the lowest in the region. Poverty rates are higher among rural and indigenous people and in the south, west, and along the eastern border than in the north and central areas where most of Honduras' industries and infrastructure are concentrated. The increased productivity needed to break Honduras' persistent high poverty rate depends, in part, on further improvements in educational attainment. Although primary-school enrollment is near 100%, educational quality is poor, the drop-out rate and grade repetition remain high, and teacher and school accountability is low.
Honduras' population growth rate has slowed since the 1990s and is now 1.2% annually with a birth rate that averages 2.1 children per woman and more among rural, indigenous, and poor women. Honduras' young adult population - ages 15 to 29 - is projected to continue growing rapidly for the next three decades and then stabilize or slowly shrink. Population growth and limited job prospects outside of agriculture will continue to drive emigration. Remittances represent about a fifth of GDP.
Want to know more about Honduras? Check all different factbooks for Honduras below.