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Honduras Population Density and Distribution
Although Honduras, with forty-six inhabitants per
square
kilometer, has a relatively low population density,
especially when
compared to its neighbors to the west, uneven distribution
has
contributed to overpopulation in certain areas (see
table 2,
Appendix A). The five mountainous departments bordering El
Salvador
(Ocotepeque, Lempira, Intibucá, La Paz, and Valle) have a
much
higher population density than the four sparsely populated
departments in the east (Colón, Olancho, Gracias a Dios,
and El
Paraíso). The country's second-largest and least-populated
department, Gracias a Dios, had a population density of
only 2.5
inhabitants per square kilometer in 1989. Honduras's only
densely
populated lowland area is the Río Ulúa valley. In 1989 the
department of Cortés, on the west bank of the Río Ulúa,
had a
population density of 188 inhabitants per square
kilometer.
Honduras is the only country in Central America with an
urban
population distributed between two large centers. Whereas
other
Central American capitals are home to more than 50 percent
of their
countries' urban populations, Tegucigalpa's percentage of
total
urban population is considerably lower. The difference is
accounted
for by the growth of San Pedro Sula. By the beginning of
the
twenty-first century, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula are
projected
to account for nearly 73 percent of the population living
in urban
areas. The two cities are also projected to account for 25
percent
of the total population of Honduras by the end of the
twentieth
century.
Data as of December 1993
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