Demographics of Honduras
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Demographics of Honduras
The population of Honduras is 8.6 million. 35% of the population is Mestizo, 10% Amerindian, 20% black and 35% white.[1]
The majority of the population of Honduras is Mestizo, constituting 35% of the country's population, having more predominantily European features with little if any amerindian ancestry. Along the Caribbean coast where, until recently, communities of English speaking Afro-Hondurans maintained a somewhat distinct culture. This is primarily because some islands and some Caribbean coastal areas were occupied by pirates and by the British at one time or another.[citation needed]
The 10% of the Ameridian population in Honduras include the Ch'orti' (Mayan descent), Pech (2,500), Tolupan or Xicaque (25,000 hab.), Lenca (100,000 hab.), Sumo or Tawahka (1,000), and Miskito (40,000 hab.), most still keep their language, Lenca being an exception. For the most part, these tribes live in rural areas and deal with extreme poverty.
About 20% of Honduras's population is black, or Afro-Honduran, and mainly reside on the country's Caribbean or Atlantic coast. The black population is mostly of West Indian (Antillean) origin, the descendants of indentured laborers brought mostly from Jamaica and Haiti. The Garifuna (people of mixed Amerindian and African ancestry) live along the north coast and islands, where there are also many Afro-Hondurans. This ethnic group, estimated at 150,000 people, has it origin in the expulsion of black people who refused to be slaves, by the British authorities, from the island of St. Vincent during the eighteenth century after the Carib Wars. Garífunas are part of Honduran identity through theatrical presentations such as Louvavagu.
Hundreds of Honduran families have roots in the Middle East, specifically Palestine. These Arab-Hondurans are sometimes called "Turcos", because they arrived in Honduras using Turkish travel documents, as their homeland was then under the control of the Ottoman Empire. The Arab-Hondurans, who tend to cluster in the city of San Pedro Sula, alongside a tiny Jewish minority population, exert considerable influence on Honduran economics and politics through their industrial and financial interests.
Asians in Honduras are mostly people of Chinese descent, and to a lesser extent Japanese. In the 1980s and 1990s when the US army was stationed in Honduras, a quantity of Korean, Ryukyuan, Filipino and Vietnamese came as contract laborers.
According to the Honduras 2001 Census of Population, the most populated Departments are: Cortés (1,2 million), Francisco Morazán (1,2 million), Yoro (466,000), Olancho (420,000), Choluteca (391,000) and Comayagua (353,000). The less populated are Islas de la Bahia and Gracias a Dios. According to the same source, the main cities are: Tegucigalpa (894,000 hab.-Distrito Central only-), San Pedro Sula (517,000 hab.), Choloma (160,000 hab.), La Ceiba (140,00 hab.), El Progreso (106,000 hab.), Choluteca, Comayagua, Puerto Cortes, La Lima and Danli. However, the main metropolitan areas are Tegucigalpa (1,200,000 hab. -est. 2007-) and San Pedro Sula (900,000 hab. -same year-). Between the 1988 and 2001 Census, San Pedro Sula duplicates its population. The country has 20 cities above 20,000 inhabitants only. Honduras is the only Central American country which its second most important city has half the population of the city-capital. Considering metropolitan areas only, the Honduran capital is the third largest Central American urban agglomeration, after Guatemala City and San Salvador.
Language and religion
The Spanish language is the predominant language, while (pidgin) English is spoken along the Caribbean and the Islas de la Bahia Department. Indigenous Amerindian languages (in several dialects) and Garifuna are also spoken, though English is becoming more popular everywhere where it was not widely spoken, due to efforts by the government, including making English the second language . Along the northern coast live communities of garifuna speakers who maintained a separate culture.
The majority of Hondurans are Roman Catholic or evangelical Protestants.
Honduran diaspora
Since 1975, emigration from Honduras has accelerated as job-seekers and political refugees sought a better life elsewhere. Although many Hondurans have relatives in \Germany, France, Spain, Brazil, and Canada, the majority of ex-patriate Hondurans live in the United States.
In Spain, the Honduran community is by far the largest amongst the Central American people living there, with an estimated 8,500, according to Spanish figures for 2006.[2] The main figures indicate that 2,130 live in Barcelona and 1,100 in Madrid. Following these demographic tendencies Catalonia has, 4,854 Hondurans; Comunidad de Madrid, 1,086; Comunidad Valenciana, 556; and Castilla y Leon, 524.
According to CELADE (Investigación Migración Internacional de Latinoamérica)`s figures, by 1992, more than 8,700 Honduran were living in El Salvador; 9,700 in Nicaragua (1995), 5,500 in Guatemala (2002), 3,000 in Costa Rica (by 2000); and 2,400 in Belize (1990). Note: figures are not comparable. Additionally, according to UN Demographic Yearbook (2000) 8,700 Honduran live in Canada.[3]
Recent State Department estimates[4] suggest there are between 800,000 and 1 million Hondurans living in the United States, nearly 15% of the Honduran domestic population. The large uncertainty is due to the substantial number of undocumented Honduran immigrants currently believed to be residing in the United States.
Statistics
Population: 7,326,496 (2006 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years:
39.9% (male 1,491,170/female 1,429,816)
15-64 years:
56.7% (male 2,076,727/female 2,077,975)
65 years and over:
3.4% (male 113,747/female 137,061) (2006 est.)
Population growth rate: 2.16% (2006 est.)
Birth rate: 28.24 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Death rate: 5.28 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Net migration rate: -1.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth:
1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years:
1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years:
1 male(s)/female
65 years and over:
0.83 male(s)/female
total population:
1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 25.82 deaths/1,000 live births
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
69.33 years
male:
67.75 years
female:
70.98 years (2006 est.)
Total fertility rate: 3.59 children born/woman (2006 est.)
Nationality:
noun:
Honduran(s)
adjective:
Honduran
Ethnic groups: Mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European) 90%, Amerindian 7%, black 2%, white 1%
Religions: Roman Catholic 97%, Protestant 3%
Languages: Spanish, Amerindian languages
Literacy:
definition:
age 15 and over can read and write
total population:
76.2%
male:
76.1%
female:
76.3% (2003 est.)