Demographics of Honduras

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The demographics concerns the population of Honduras which is approximately 7.1 million according to a United Nations 2004 estimate. The nation's capital and largest city, Tegucigalpa has a million inhabitants, but the country's most industrious city is San Pedro Sula close to the Caribbean coast.

According to the Honduras 2001 Census of Population, the most populated Departments are: Cortés (1,2 million), Francisco Morazán (1,2 million), Yoro (466,000), Olancho (420,000), Choluteca (391,000) and Comayagua (353,000). The less populated are Islas de la Bahia and Gracias a Dios. According to the same source, the main cities are: Tegucigalpa (894,000 hab.-Distrito Central only-), San Pedro Sula (517,000 hab.), Choloma (160,000 hab.), La Ceiba (140,00 hab.), El Progreso (106,000 hab.), Choluteca, Comayagua, Puerto Cortes, La Lima and Danli. However, the main metropolitan areas are Tegucigalpa (1,200,000 hab. -est. 2007-) and San Pedro Sula (900,000 hab. -same year-). Between the 1988 and 2001 Census, San Pedro Sula duplicates its population. The country has 20 cities above 20,000 inhabitants only. Honduras is the only Central American country which its second most important city has half the population of the city-capital. Considering metropolitan areas only, the Honduran capital is the third largest Central American urban agglomeration, after Guatemala City and San Salvador.

About 91% of the population is mestizo, containing a mixture of the Caucasian (Spanish) and American Indian races. Also there are small minorities of "white" Europeans, Afro-Honduran, and indigenous Amerindian descents.

The great majority of Hondurans are Roman Catholic or evangelical Protestants.

The Spanish language is the predominant language, while (pidgin) English is spoken in the Caribbean Islas de la Bahia Department, although it is being superseded by Spanish. Indigenous Amerindian languages (in several dialects) and Garifuna are also spoken, though Spanish is becoming more popular everywhere where it was not widely spoken, due to efforts by the government, including making Spanish the language used in education.

The population of Honduras is predominantly Hispanic, but along the northern coast were until recently communities of English speakers who maintained a separate culture, as some islands and some Caribbean coast’s areas were occupied by pirates and by the British at one time or another.

Groups of Garifuna (people of mixed of Amerindian -Caribbean natives- and African ancestry) live along the north coast and islands, where there are also many Afro-Latin Americans. This ethnic group –estimate in 150,000 people- has it origin in Blacks slaves’ expulsed by the British authorities from St. Vincent’s island during the 18th century after an insurrection. Garífunas are part of Honduras' identity through theatrical presentations such as Louvavagu.

Other indigenous peoples in Honduras are Chortí (Mayan descent), Pech or Paya (2,500), Tolupan or Xicaque (25,000 hab.), Lenca (100,000 hab.), Sumo or Tawahka (1,000), and Miskito (40,000 hab.) still exist, and most still keep their language, Lenca being an exception. For the most part, these tribes live in rural areas and deal with extreme poverty.

Hundreds of families in the country can find their roots in the Middle East, specifically Palestine. These Arab-Hondurans are sometimes called "turcos", because they arrived in Honduras using Turkish travel documents, as their homelands were then under the control of theOttoman Empire. The "turcos", along with a tiny Jewish minority population, exert considerable influence on Honduran economics and politics through their industrial and financial interests. It's been stated that the Honduran hero Francisco Morazan, great Central American statesman and president of Honduras, was of Jewish ancestry.

Asians in Honduras are mostly of Chinese and some Japanese descent, but in the 1980s and 1990s when the US army was stationed in Honduras, a quantity of Korean, Ryukyuan, Filipino and Vietnamese came as contract laborers.

In the 1960s, Honduras and El Salvador had a diplomatic conflict over a boundary dispute and the presence of thousands of Salvadorans living in Honduras illegally. After the week-long war –won by the latter- in July 1969 known as the soccer war, many Salvadoran families and workers were expelled. El Salvador had agreed on a truce to settle the boundary issue, but Honduras later paid war damage costs for expelled refugees.

Since 1975, emigration from Honduras has accelerated as job-seekers and political refugees sought a better life elsewhere. Although many Hondurans have relatives in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Spain, Mexico, and Canada, the majority of 1,5 million Hondurans living overseas are in the United States).

According to the U.S. Census Bureau (figures taken of the 2005 census) 460,000 Hondurans live there (the third largest community among the Central Americans living in the U.S.). The Honduran community tends to live mainly (in order of size) in: 88,000 in Florida (of which 24,000 are in Miami only), 68,000 in Texas (of which 27,000 in Houston and 6,000 in Dallas), 62,000 in California (of which 25,000 in the city of Los Angeles only), 51,000 in New York (of wich 36,000 in New York City (NY)), 25,000 in New Jersey, 18,000 in Virginia, the same number in Louisiana and 3,000 in Washington DC. Source: [1]

In Spain, Honduran community is by far the largest amongst the Central American people living there: 8,523 according to Spanish figures for 2006: [2]). The main figures indicate that 2,130 live in Barcelona and 1,100 in Madrid. Following these demographic tendencies Cataluña has 4,854 Hondurans; Comunidad de Madrid, 1,086; Comunidad Valenciana, 556; and Castilla y Leon, 524.

According to CELADE (Investigación Migración Internacional de Latinoamérica)`s figures, by 1992, more than 8,700 Honduran were living in El Salvador; 9,700 in Nicaragua (by 1995), 5,500 in Guatemala (by 2002), 3,000 in Costa Rica (by 2000); and 2,400 in Belize (by 1990). Note: figures are not comparable. Additionally, acoording to UN Demographic Yearbook (2000) 8,700 Honduran live in Canada. [3]

Contents [hide] 1 Age structure 2 Population growth rate 3 Birth rate 4 Death rate 5 Net migration rate 6 Sex ratio 7 Infant mortality rate 8 Life expectancy at birth 9 Total fertility rate 10 Ethnic groups 11 Religions 12 Literacy

Age structure

0-14 years: 43% (male 1,361,259; female 1,303,041) 15-64 years: 54% (male 1,665,406; female 1,699,680) 65 years and over: 3% (male 104,469; female 115,743) (2000 est.)

Population growth rate 2.52% (2000 est.)

Birth rate 32.65 births/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Death rate 5.31 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Net migration rate -2.17 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Sex ratio at birth 1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years 1.04 male(s)/female 15-64 years 0.98 male(s)/female 65 years and over 0.9 male(s)/female total population 1 male(s)/female (2000 est.)

Infant mortality rate 31.29 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 est.)

Life expectancy at birth total population 69.93 years male 67.91 years female 72.06 years (2000 est.)

Total fertility rate 4.26 children born/woman (2000 est.)

Ethnic groups Mestizo (mixed Amerindian-European) 91%, Amerindian 7%, Arab, Black, White 2% Among the Amerindians (estimate figures up to 1997): Lencas (100,00 hab.), Garifunas (150,000 hab.), Misquitos -Zambos- (40,000 hab.), Tolupanes -Hicaques- (25,000hab. ), Chortis (5,000 hab.), Pech (2,600 hab.), and Tawahkas -Sumos- (1,000 hab only).

Religions Roman Catholic 97%, LDS (Mormon): 1.6%, Protestant Minority

Literacy total population 72.7%

male 72.6% female 72.7% (1995 est.) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Honduras"