| Honduras |
Missionaries
Sharon Francis
http://islandnet.com/cmca
National name: República de Honduras
President: Manuel Zelaya (2006)
Land area: 43,201 sq mi (111,891 sq km);total area: 43,278 sq mi (112,090 sq km)
Population (2007 est.): 7,483,763 (growth rate: 2.1%); birth rate: 27.6/1000; infant mortality rate: 25.2/1000; life expectancy: 69.4; density per sq mi: 173
Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Tegucigalpa, 1,436,000 (metro. area), 1,248,300 (city proper)
Monetary unit: Lempira
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%
Literacy rate: 76% (2003 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP(2005 est.): $20.21 billion; per capita $2,800.Real growth rate: 4%.Inflation:9.2%.Unemployment:28%.Arable land:10%.Agriculture: bananas, coffee, citrus; beef; timber; shrimp.Labor force: 2.54 million; agriculture 34%, industry 21%, services 45% (2001 est.).Industries: sugar, coffee, textiles, clothing, wood products.Natural resources: timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal, fish, hydropower.Exports:$1.726 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): coffee, shrimp, bananas, gold, palm oil, fruit, lobster, lumber.Imports: $4.161 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery and transport equipment, industrial raw materials, chemical products, fuels, foodstuffs (2000).Major trading partners: U.S., El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala (2004).
Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 322,500 (2002); mobile cellular: 326,500 (2002).Radio broadcast stations: AM 241, FM 53, shortwave 12 (1998).Television broadcast stations: 11 (plus 17 repeaters) (1997).Internet hosts:,944 (2003).Internet users: 168,600 (2002).
Transportation: Railways: total: 699 km (2004).Highways: total: 13,603 km; paved: 2,775 km; unpaved: 10,828 km (1999 est.).Waterways: 465 km (most navigable only by small craft) (2004).Ports and harbors: Puerto Castilla, Puerto Cortes, San Lorenzo, Tela.Airports: 115 (2004 est.).
International disputes: in 1992, ICJ ruled on the delimitation of "bolsones" (disputed areas) along the El Salvador-Honduras border, but despite OAS intervention and a further ICJ ruling in 2003, full demarcation of the border remains stalled; 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 Sapodilla Cays off the coast of Belize, but agreed to creation of a joint ecological park and Guatemalan corridor in the Caribbean in the failed 2002 Belize-Guatemala Differendum, which the OAS is attempting to revive; Nicaragua filed a claim against Honduras in 1999 and against Colombia in 2001 at the ICJ over a complex dispute over islands and maritime boundaries in the Caribbean Sea.
