Once part of Spain's vast empire in the New World, Honduras became an independent nation in 1821. After two and a half decades of mostly military rule, a freely elected civilian government came to power in 1982. During the 1980s, Honduras proved a haven for anti-Sandinista contras fighting the Marxist Nicaraguan Government and an ally to Salvadoran Government forces fighting leftist guerrillas. The country was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed about 5,600 people and caused approximately $2 billion in damage.

Central America, bordering the Caribbean Sea, between Guatemala and Nicaragua and bordering the Gulf of Fonseca (North Pacific Ocean), between El Salvador and Nicaragua

15 00 N, 86 30 W

Central America and the Caribbean

slightly larger than Tennessee

820 km

subtropical in lowlands, temperate in mountains

mostly mountains in interior, narrow coastal plains

timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal, fish, hydropower

800 sq km (2003)

95.9 cu km (2000)

frequent, but generally mild, earthquakes; extremely susceptible to damaging hurricanes and floods along the Caribbean coast

urban population expanding; deforestation results from logging and the clearing of land for agricultural purposes; further land degradation and soil erosion hastened by uncontrolled development and improper land use practices such as farming of marginal lands; mining activities polluting Lago de Yojoa (the country's largest source of fresh water), as well as several rivers and streams, with heavy metals

has only a short Pacific coast but a long Caribbean shoreline, including the virtually uninhabited eastern Mosquito Coast

7,792,854

1.956% (2009 est.)

26.27 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)

5.41 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)

-1.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)

3.27 children born/woman (2009 est.)

0.7% (2007 est.)

28,000 (2007 est.)

1,900 (2007 est.)

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

Roman Catholic 97%, Protestant 3%

Spanish, Amerindian dialects

3.8% of GDP (1991)

democratic constitutional republic

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

15 September 1821 (from Spain)

Independence Day, 15 September (1821)

11 January 1982, effective 20 January 1982; amended many times

rooted in Roman and Spanish civil law with increasing influence of English common law; recent judicial reforms include abandoning Napoleonic legal codes in favor of the oral adversarial system; accepts ICJ jurisdiction with reservations

18 years of age; universal and compulsory

unicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional (128 seats; members are elected proportionally by department to serve four-year terms)

Supreme Court of Justice or Corte Suprema de Justicia (15 judges are elected for seven-year terms by the National Congress)

Christian Democratic Party or PDC [Felicito AVILA]; Democratic Unification Party or PUD [Cesar HAM]; Liberal Party or PL [Patricia RODAS]; National Innovation and Unity Party or PINU [Jorge AQUILAR Paredes]; National Party of Honduras or PN [Porfirio LOBO]

Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras or CODEH; Confederation of Honduran Workers or CTH; Coordinating Committee of Popular Organizations or CCOP; General Workers Confederation or CGT; Honduran Council of Private Enterprise or COHEP; National Association of Honduran Campesinos or ANACH; National Union of Campesinos or UNC; Popular Bloc or BP; United Confederation of Honduran Workers or CUTH

BCIE, CACM, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO (subscriber), ITSO, ITU, ITUC, LAES, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MINURSO, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, SICA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, Union Latina, UNWTO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and blue, with five blue, five-pointed stars arranged in an X pattern centered in the white band; the stars represent the members of the former Federal Republic of Central America - Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua; similar to the flag of El Salvador, which features a round emblem encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE EL SALVADOR EN LA AMERICA CENTRAL centered in the white band; also similar to the flag of Nicaragua, which features a triangle encircled by the word REPUBLICA DE NICARAGUA on top and AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom, centered in the white band

Honduras, the second poorest country in Central America, has an extraordinarily unequal distribution of income and high unemployment. The economy relies heavily on a narrow range of exports, notably bananas and coffee, making it vulnerable to natural disasters and shifts in commodity prices; however, investments in the maquila and non-traditional export sectors are slowly diversifying the economy. Economic growth remains dependent on the US economy its largest trading partner, and will decline in 2009 as a result of reduction in export demand and tightening global credit markets. Remittances represent over a quarter of GDP or nearly three-quarters of exports. The US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) came into force in 2006 and has helped foster investment. Despite improvements in tax collections, the government's fiscal deficit is growing due to increases in current expenditures and financial losses from the state energy and telephone companies.

$33.8 billion (2008 est.)

$32.5 billion (2007 est.)

$30.57 billion (2006 est.)

$14 billion (2008 est.)

4% (2008 est.)

6.3% (2007 est.)

6.6% (2006 est.)

$4,400 (2008 est.)

$4,300 (2007 est.)

$4,200 (2006 est.)

2.991 million (2008 est.)

3.5% (2008 est.)

50.7% (2004)

53.8 (2003)

56.3 (1998)

33.4% of GDP (2008 est.)

20.4% of GDP (2008 est.)

74.1% of GDP (2004 est.)

11.4% (2008 est.)

6.9% (2007 est.)

NA%

17.94% (31 December 2008)

16.61% (31 December 2007)

$1.633 billion (31 December 2008)

$1.6 billion (31 December 2007)

$5.574 billion (31 December 2008)

$5.239 billion (31 December 2007)

$7.172 billion (31 December 2008)

$6.298 billion (31 December 2007)

$NA

bananas, coffee, citrus; beef; timber; shrimp, tilapia, lobster; corn, African palm

sugar, coffee, textiles, clothing, wood products

4.4% (2008 est.)

6.05 billion kWh (2007 est.)

4.696 billion kWh (2007 est.)

0 kWh (2008 est.)

11.8 million kWh (2007 est.)

0 bbl/day (2008 est.)

52,000 bbl/day (2008 est.)

0 bbl/day (2007 est.)

46,130 bbl/day (2007 est.)

0 bbl (1 January 2009 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2008)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (1 January 2009 est.)

-$1.977 billion (2008 est.)

-$1.274 billion (2007 est.)

$6.046 billion (2008 est.)

$5.642 billion (2007 est.)

coffee, shrimp, bananas, gold, palm oil, fruit, lobster, lumber

US 62.1%, Guatemala 5.2%, El Salvador 5%, Mexico 4.1% (2008)

$10.39 billion (2008 est.)

$8.82 billion (2007 est.)

machinery and transport equipment, industrial raw materials, chemical products, fuels, foodstuffs

US 50%, Guatemala 7.6%, El Salvador 5.3%, Mexico 4.7%, Costa Rica 4.2% (2008)

$2.492 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

$2.546 billion (31 December 2007 est.)

$3.209 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

$3.411 billion (31 December 2007 est.)

lempiras (HNL) per US dollar - 18.983 (2008 est.), 18.9 (2007), 18.895 (2006), 18.92 (2005), 18.206 (2004)

825,800 (2008)

6.211 million (2008)

AM 241, FM 53, shortwave 12 (1998)

11 (plus 17 repeaters) (1997)

.hn

15,691 (2009)

658,500 (2008)

106 (2009)

465 km (most navigable only by small craft) (2008)

La Ceiba, Puerto Cortes, San Lorenzo, Tela

Army, Navy (includes Naval Infantry), Honduran Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Hondurena, FAH) (2008)

18 years of age for voluntary 2 to 3-year military service (2004)

0.6% of GDP (2006 est.)

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 (OAS) 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; memorials and countermemorials were filed by the parties in Nicaragua's 1999 and 2001 proceedings against Honduras and Colombia at the ICJ over the maritime boundary and territorial claims in the western Caribbean Sea - final public hearings are scheduled for 2007

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