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

AREA:

total: 112,090 sq km
land: 111,890 sq km
water: 200 sq km
Area - comparative:
  
slightly larger than Tennessee

POPULATION:

6,975,204
 
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected

(July 2005 est.)

AGE STRUCTURE:

0-14 years: 40.8%
(male 1,452,646/female 1,393,271)

15-64 years: 55.5%
(male 1,921,432/female 1,948,656)
 
65 years and over: 3.7%
(male 122,146/female 137,053)

(2005 est.)

MEDIAN AGE:

total: 19.15 years
male: 18.75 years
female: 19.56 years

(2005 est.)

POPULATION GROWTH:

2.16%

(2005 est.)

INFANT MORTALITY RATE:

total: 29.32 deaths/1,000 live births
 
male: 32.84 deaths/1,000 live births
 
female: 25.63 deaths/1,000 live births

(2005 est.)

HIV/AIDS-ADULT PREVALENCE RATE:

1.4%

(World Fact Book estimates 1.8%)

HIV/AIDS- PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS :

Ages 15-49:

59,000

low estimate:
33,000

high estimate:
100,000

HIV/AIDS-DEATH

4,000

low estimate:
2,300

high estimate:
7,200

ETHNIC GROUPS:

mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European) 90%,
Amerindian 7%,
black 2%,
white 1%

RELIGIONS:

Roman Catholic 97%,
Protestant 3%

LANGUAGES:

Spanish, Amerindian dialects

LITERACY:

definition: age 15 and over can read and write
 
total population: 76.2%
male: 76.1%
female: 76.3%

(2003 est.)

GOVERNMENT TYPE:

democratic constitutional republic

CAPITAL:

Tegucigalpa

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS:

18 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento); Atlantida, Choluteca, Colon, Comayagua, Copan, Cortes, El Paraiso, Francisco Morazan, Gracias a Dios, Intibuca, Islas de la Bahia, La Paz, Lempira, Ocotepeque, Olancho, Santa Barbara, Valle, Yoro n

INDEPENDENCE:

15 September 1821 (from Spain)

ECONOMY:

Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere with an extraordinarily unequal distribution of income and massive unemployment, is banking on expanded trade under the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and on debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. The country has met most of its macroeconomic targets, and began a three-year IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PGRF) program in February 2004. Growth remains dependent on the economy of the US, its largest trading partner, on commodity prices, particularly coffee, and on reduction of the high crime rate.

GDP:

purchasing power parity - $18.79 billion

(2004 est.)

POPULATION BELOW POVERT LINE:

53%

(1993 est.)

INFLATION RATE:

7%

(2004 est.)

UNEMPLOYMENT:

15% (2004 est.)

EXCHANGE RATES:

lempiras per US dollar -
18.2129 (2004),
17.3453 (2003),
16.4334 (2002),
15.4737 (2001),
14.8392 (2000)

ILLICIT DRUGS:

transshipment point for drugs and narcotics; illicit producer of cannabis, cultivated on small plots and used principally for local consumption; corruption is a major problem; some money-laundering activity