a
922 km

Coastline:

820 km

Maritime claims:

territorial sea: 12 nm
contiguous zone: 24 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
continental shelf: natural extension of territory or to 200 nm

Climate:

subtropical in lowlands, temperate in mountains

Terrain:

mostly mountains in interior, narrow coastal plains

Elevation extremes:

lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
highest point: Cerro Las Minas 2,870 m

Natural resources:

timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal,
fish, hydropower

Land use:

arable land: 9.53%
permanent crops: 3.21%
other: 87.26% (2005)

Irrigated land:

800 sq km (2003)

Total renewable water resources:

95.9 cu km (2000)

Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):

total: 0.86 cu km/yr (8%/12%/80%)
per capita: 119 cu m/yr (2000)

Natural hazards:

frequent, but generally mild, earthquakes; extremely susceptible to
damaging hurricanes and floods along the Caribbean coast

Environment - current issues:

urban population expanding; deforestation results from logging and
the clearing of land for agricultural purposes; further land
degradation and soil erosion hastened by uncontrolled development
and improper land use practices such as farming of marginal lands;
mining activities polluting Lago de Yojoa (the country's largest
source of fresh water), as well as several rivers and streams, with
heavy metals

Environment - international agreements:

party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:

has only a short Pacific coast but a long Caribbean shoreline,
including the virtually uninhabited eastern Mosquito Coast

People
Honduras

Population:

7,639,327
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower
population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
2008 est.)

Age structure:

0-14 years: 38.7% (male 1,508,835/female 1,446,530)
15-64 years: 57.8% (male 2,210,187/female 2,203,620)