Honduras

Honduras is located in the heart of central America, between Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The country won independence from Spain in 1821 and has managed to stay largely clear of the endless civil wars that have plagued its neighbors, but it has never prospered in its relative freedom, and most of its citizens struggle to stay afloat.

The population is 7.3 million (2006 estimate) and is growing at 2.16 percent annually. The birth rate is

28.24 per 1,000 people, the death rate 5.28 per 1,000, and the migration rate is in the negative column, with minus 1.39 migrants per 1,000 people. Hundreds of thousands of Hondurans have left the country in recent years, most traveling north to find work in the [Page 861]United States. It is simply more profitable. In 2002 alone, these economic immigrants wired home some $700 million in remittances.

Honduras is largely covered by mountains, with just a few lowlands along the coast and the river valleys. Between 40 and 50 percent of the population lives in urban areas. Population density is 64 people per square kilometer. Only 9.53 percent of the land is arable, but for many decades, most of the country's slim Gross Domestic Product has come from agricultural exports such as bananas and coffee and fully one-third of Hondurans work in agribusiness. The national economy was decimated in 1998 in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch. That devastating storm took the lives of 5,600 Hondurans and caused several billions of dollars in damage.

The government has recently opened the door to maquiladoras, foreign-owned factories taking advantage of free-trade arrangements. However, neither agribusiness, mining, nor maquiladoras have done much to improve the lot of most Hondurans. Per capita income is $1,030 a year, and 21 percent of the population gets by on less than $1 a day.

The average diet is based on beans, rice, tortillas, plantains, meat, potatoes, and cheese. Rates of malnutrition are high, particularly among the poor. About 90 percent of the people have access to clean water and 68 percent have access to sanitary facilities, but access drops significantly outside the cities. Honduras has the highest rate of parasitic infection in the western hemisphere. Hookworm is common, as are malaria and hepatitis. Life expectancy at birth is 67.75 for men and 70.98 for women, but healthy life expectancy is much lower at 56.3 for men and 60.5 for women. Infant mortality is 25.82 per 1,000 live births. The mortality rate for children between the ages of 1 and 5 years is 41 per 1,000. The average woman has 3.59 children and the maternal mortality rate is 220 deaths per 100,000 live births. Only 56 percent of births are monitored by trained attendants.

The HIV/AIDS rate is 1.8 percent, with an estimated 63,000 living with the virus in 2003 and at least 4,100 AIDS-related deaths. This, along with other factors, has contributed to a large population of orphans, with more than 180,000 children under the age of 17 having lost one or both parents.

Violent crime is rampant in the cities, with murder, rape, assault, and kidnapping for profit now common. Gang violence has flourished almost unchecked.

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