Honduras Map

• The region is considered a biodiversity hotspot because of the numerous plant and animal species that can be found there. Like other countries in the region, Honduras contains vast biological resources. The country hosts more than 6,000 species of vascular plants, of which 630 (described so far) are orchids; around 250 reptiles and amphibians, more than 700 bird species, and 110 mammal species, half of them being bats.

• In the northeastern region of La Mosquitia lies the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, a lowland rainforest which is home to a great diversity of life. The reserve was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites List in 1982.

• Honduras has rain forests, cloud forests (which can rise up to nearly three thousand meters above sea level), mangroves, savannas and mountain ranges with pine and oak trees, and the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. In the Bay Islands there are bottlenose dolphins, manta rays, parrot fish, schools of blue tang and whale shark.

• In Honduras about 83.6% of the population of the country is literate.The net primary enrollment rate was 94% in 2004, while in 2007 the primary school completion rate was reported to be 40%. Honduras has bilingual (Spanish and English) and even trilingual (Spanish, English, German/Turkish) schools and numerous universities.

• The university is ruled by National Autonomous University of Honduras wich have centers in the most important cities in Honduras.

• The economy has continued to grow slowly, but the distribution of wealth remains very polarized with average wages remaining low. Economic growth in the last few years has averaged 7% per year which has been one of the most successful growths in Latin America, but 50%, approximately 3.7 million, of the population still remains below the poverty line. It is estimated that there are more than 1.2 million people who are unemployed, the rate of unemployment standing at 27.9%. However, according to the Human Development Index, Honduras is the 6th poorest/least developed country in Latin America, after Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Guyana, and Bolivia.

• Honduras was declared one of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which made it eligible for debt relief in 2005.

• Both the electricity services (ENEE) and land-line telephone services (HONDUTEL) have been operated by government agencies, with ENEE receiving heavy subsidies because of chronic financial problems. HONDUTEL, however, is no longer a monopoly, the telecommunication sector having been opened to private-sector companies after 25 December 2005; this was one of the requirements before approving the beginning of CAFTA. There are price controls on petrol, and other temporary price controls for basic commodities are often passed for short periods by the Congress.

• After years of declining against the U.S. dollar the Lempira has stabilized at around 19 Lempiras per dollar. In June 2008 the exchange rate between United States Dollars and Honduran Lempiras was approximately 1 to 18.85.

• In 2005 Honduras signed the CAFTA (Free Trade Agreement with United States). In December 2005, Honduras' main seaport Puerto Cortes was included in the U.S. Container Security Initiative.

• On 7 December 2006, the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Energy (DOE) announced the first phase of the Secure Freight Initiative, an unprecedented effort to build upon existing port security measures by enhancing the U.S. federal government’s ability to scan containers for nuclear and radiological materials overseas and to better assess the risk of inbound containers. The initial phase of Secure Freight involves the deployment of a combination of existing technology and proven nuclear detection devices to six foreign ports: Port Qasim in Pakistan; Puerto Cortes in Honduras; Southampton in the United Kingdom; Port Salalah in Oman; Port of Singapore; and the Gamman Terminal at Port Busan in Korea. Since early 2007, containers from these ports are scanned for radiation and information risk factors before they are allowed to depart for the United States.

• According to the CIA World Factbook, relying on national census data, Honduras has a population of 7.48 million; 85% of the population is Mestizo or white; 5.5% Amerindian; and 4.3% Afro Honduran. However, in Honduras as in Latin American countries in general, racial breakdowns of population conform to local perceptions of race, and also social status which may tend to over represent some groups and under represent others, and thus such statistics must be understood in that light.

• Ninety percent of the Honduran population is Mestizo and white (a mixture of Amerindian and European ancestry). About 5.5% of the Honduran population are members of one of the seven recognized indigenous groups.

• About 4.5% of Honduras's population is black, or Afro-Honduran, and mainly reside on the country's Caribbean coast. Most are the descendants of the slaves and indentured servants from the West Indian islands brought to Honduras. Another large group (about 150,000 today) are the Garifuna, descendants of an Afro-Carib population which revolted against British authorities on the island of St. Vincent and were forcibly moved to Belize and Honduras during the 18th century. Garífunas are part of Honduran identity through theatrical presentations such as Louvavagu. A final group are workers brought in from the English-speaking Caribbean, primarily Jamaica and Barbados, to work on the fruit plantations started by mostly North American companies such as United Fruit Company in the late 19th and early 20th century.

• Honduras hosts a significant Palestinian community (the vast majority of whom are Christian Arabs). The Palestinians arrived in the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, establishing themselves especially in the city of San Pedro Sula. The Palestinian community, well integrated in Honduras, is prominent in business, commerce, banking, industry, and politics. There is also an East Asian community that is primarily Chinese descent, and to a lesser extent Japanese. Some Korean, Ryukyuan, Vietnamese and Filipino peoples also make up a small percentage due to their arrival to Honduras as contract laborers in the 1980s and 1990s. There are also an estimated 1000 Sumos (or Mayangnas) that live in Honduras, the majority of whom reside on the Caribbean coast.

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