Honduras Facts, Honduras Flag -- National Geographic

Fast Facts

Population:: 7,212,000
Capital:: Tegucigalpa; 1,007,000
Area:: 112,492 square kilometers (43,433 square miles)
Language:: Spanish, Amerindian dialects
Religion:: Roman Catholic
Currency:: Lempira
Life Expectancy:: 71
GDP per Capita:: U.S. $2,500
Literacy Percent:: 76

Honduras, in Central America, is mountainous and forested—although widespread slash-and-burn subsistence farming is destroying many forests. The largely mestizo population speaks Spanish, with English common on the northern coast and Bay Islands. Maya ruins at Copán, which represent the wealth of the past in what today is one of the region's poorest nations, help diversify the economy with tourist revenue. Although agricultural products are plentiful, mostly bananas and coffee, they have failed to enliven the economy of this tenuous democracy. The 2003 U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement brings economic hope.

ECONOMY

Industry: Sugar, coffee, textiles, clothing
Agriculture: Bananas, coffee, citrus; beef; timber; shrimp
Exports: Coffee, bananas, shrimp, lobster, meat

—Text From National Geographic Atlas of the World, Eighth Edition

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