HONDURAS

  • President: (2019)
  • Land area: 43,201 sq mi (111,891 sq km); total area: 43,278 sq mi (112,090 sq km)
  • Population (2014 est.): 8,598,561 (growth rate: 1.74%); birth rate: 23.66/1000; infant mortality rate: 18.72/1000; life expectancy: 70.91
  • Capital and largest city (2011 est.): Tegucigalpa, 1.088 million
  • Monetary unit: Lempira
  • Telephone code: 504
  • Electricity: 110V, 60Hz; plugs/sockets Type A and B
  • National name: República de Honduras (HON)
  • Current government officials
  • Languages: Spanish (official), Amerindian dialects; English widely spoken in business
  • Ethnicity/race: mestizo 90%, Amerindian 7%, black 2%, white 1%
  • Religions: Roman Catholic 97%, Protestant 3%
  • National Holiday: Independence Day, September 15
  • Literacy rate: 85.1% (2011 est.)
  • Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2013 est.): $39.23 billion; per capita $4,800. Real growth rate: 2.8%. Inflation: 5.2%. Unemployment: 4.5%. Arable land: 9.07%. Agriculture: bananas, coffee, citrus; beef; timber; shrimp. Labor force: 3.507 million (2013 est.); agriculture 39.2%, industry 20.9%, services 39.8%. Industries: sugar, coffee, textiles, clothing, wood products. Natural resources: timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal, fish, hydropower. Exports: $7.881 billion (2013 est.): apparel, coffee, shrimp, automobile wire harnesses, cigars, bananas, gold, palm oil, fruit, lobster, lumber. Imports: $11.34 billion (2013 est.): machinery and transport equipment, industrial raw materials, chemical products, fuels, foodstuffs. Major trading partners:U.S., Germany, Belgium, Nicaragua, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, China, Costa Rica (2012).
  • Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 610,000 (2012); mobile cellular: 7.37 million (2012). Broadcast media: multiple privately-owned terrestrial TV networks, supplemented by multiple cable TV networks; Radio Honduras is the lone government-owned radio network; roughly 300 privately-owned radio stations (2007). Internet hosts: 30,955 (2012). Internet users: 731,700 (2009).
  • Transportation: Railways: total: 44 km (2012). Roadways: total: 14,742 km; paved: 3,367 km; unpaved: 11,375 km (2012 est.). Waterways: 465 km (most navigable only by small craft) (2012). Ports and harbors: La Ceiba, Puerto Cortes, San Lorenzo, Tela. Airports: 103 (2013).
  • International disputes: International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on the delimitation of "bolsones" (disputed areas) along the El Salvador-Honduras border in 1992 with final settlement by the parties in 2006 after an Organization of American States survey and a further ICJ ruling in 2003; the 1992 ICJ ruling advised a tripartite resolution to a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca with consideration of Honduran access to the Pacific; El Salvador continues to claim tiny Conejo Island, not mentioned in the ICJ ruling, off Honduras in the Gulf of Fonseca; Honduras claims the Belizean-administered Sapodilla Cays off the coast of Belize in its constitution, but agreed to a joint ecological park around the cays should Guatemala consent to a maritime corridor in the Caribbean under the OAS-sponsored 2002 Belize-Guatemala Differendum.