LOCATED IN CENTRAL America, El Salvador has a land area of 8,124 sq. mi. (21,040 sq. km.), with a population of 6,948,073 (2007 est.), and a population density of 823.6 people per sq. mi. (318.7 people per sq. km.). It is the only country in Central America that does not have a Caribbean coastline. Pacific hurricanes occasionally affect the country, as was the case with Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Some 27 percent of the land is arable (the highest percentage in Central America) much of it in coffee plantations; 29 percent of the land is used for meadows and pasture, with only 5 percent forested.

One of the poorest countries in the region, electricity generation in El Salvador comes largely from fossil fuels (42.3 percent) and ...