Honduras

Honduras is a country in Central America.

It has lots of mountains. The sea is on two sides. The capital city is called Tegucigalpa.

Honduras is a country in Central America, the narrow strip of land between North and South America. The Caribbean Sea washes its long northern coast, and the Pacific Ocean touches a short stretch of coast in the south. Out in the Caribbean lie the Bay Islands, which are part of Honduras too.

More than three-fourths of the country is mountains. The capital, Tegucigalpa, sits among hills in the middle. About 10.2 million people live in Honduras (official 2026 estimate), and more than half of them live in towns and cities.

Honduras lies between Guatemala and El Salvador to the west and Nicaragua to the south and east. The Caribbean Sea washes its northern coast and the Pacific its narrow southern coast; the offshore Bay Islands form a separate department. Britannica describes a land more than three-fourths mountainous, with lowlands only along the coasts and in river valleys reaching inland.

Honduras's National Statistics Institute (INE) projects 10,186,738 people for 2026, based on the 2013 census, on more than 112,000 km². Unlike most Central American countries, Honduras has a second city, San Pedro Sula, as important for industry and trade as the capital, Tegucigalpa. More than half of people now live in urban areas. Honduras is a multiparty republic with a single legislative house, the 128-seat National Congress; Nasry Asfura is president (2026).

Tegucigalpa is the capital city.

It has hills all around it. San Pedro Sula is another big city. At Copán, you can see old stone statues carved by the Maya.

Tegucigalpa, the capital, grew up in the hills after silver was found there in the 1570s. It became the capital in 1880. San Pedro Sula, in the north, is a busy city of factories and trade.

In the west, near Guatemala, lies Copán, one of the most important cities of the ancient Maya. Its plazas are full of tall carved stones called stelae, and one great stairway is covered with more than 1,800 carved signs. Off the north coast, the Bay Islands, such as Roatán, are famous for diving and snorkeling on coral reefs.

Tegucigalpa, the capital together with Comayagüela, grew from a silver strike in the 1570s and replaced Comayagua as capital in 1880; the Autonomous National University of Honduras (1847) there enrolls more than 75,000 students. San Pedro Sula, in the northwest, rivals it in industry and commerce with about half its population.

Copán, a World Heritage Site since 1980, was a leading city of the Classic Maya. A dynasty of 16 rulers began with Yax Kuk Mo, who arrived in AD 427, and the city flourished from about 300 to 900 before being abandoned in the early 10th century. On the risers of its Hieroglyphic Stairway are more than 1,800 glyphs, the longest known Maya inscription. Tourism brought nearly 2.8 million international visitors in 2024, more than 1.8 million of them cruise passengers, many arriving through the Bay Islands, especially Roatán.

Honduras has many mountains.

It is warm by the sea and cooler up high. Big rainforests grow in the east. Sometimes big storms called hurricanes bring heavy rain.

Rugged mountains cover most of Honduras, with flat-floored valleys between them. The highest mountain, Las Minas, in the west, is 2,849 meters tall. The lowlands by the sea are hot and steamy, while the mountain valleys are milder.

The north and east get the most rain, and sometimes hurricanes bring very heavy storms. In the far east, La Mosquitia is a wild land of rainforest, pine savanna, swamps and lagoons. There, the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve protects a whole river, from its mountain springs to the Caribbean Sea.

Britannica divides Honduras into four regions: the eastern Caribbean lowlands (La Mosquitia), about one-fifth of the land; the northern coastal plains, about one-eighth of the land but one-fourth of the people; the central highlands, two-thirds of the territory and home to most of the population, rising to 2,849 m at Las Minas; and the small Pacific lowlands on the Gulf of Fonseca.

Lowlands average 26–28 °C, while valleys at 600–1,200 m average 19–23 °C. The northern and eastern plains receive 1,800–2,800 mm of rain or more and occasional hurricanes; the Pacific side gets 1,500–2,000 mm but almost none from December to April. Forests range from mangroves and palms on the eastern coast and Caribbean pine savanna to broad-leaved forest with mahogany, Spanish cedar and ceiba, and oak-pine forest on high slopes. The Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve (UNESCO, 1982), 350,000 ha, is the largest protected area in the country; it was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2011 at Honduras's request, and UNESCO notes continuing logging, clearing for pasture and illegal resource extraction.

Bright red macaws fly in Honduras.

Jaguars hunt in the rainforest. Gentle manatees swim in the warm water. Big iguanas and crocodiles live there too.

Insects, birds and reptiles are everywhere in Honduras. There are many kinds of butterflies, moths and beetles, many of them beautifully colored, and crocodiles, snakes, turtles and large iguanas live in the tropical forests. Deer, peccaries, tapirs, pumas, jaguars and ocelots live there too.

In the Río Plátano reserve alone, 411 kinds of birds have been recorded, including scarlet macaws, great green macaws and harpy eagles. Manatees live in the reserve too, and four kinds of sea turtles are found there. Near Tegucigalpa, La Tigra National Park protects a cloud forest.

Britannica names insects, birds and reptiles as the most conspicuous animals: many species of butterflies, moths and beetles; crocodiles, snakes, lizards such as the green iguana, and turtles in the tropical forests; and mammals including deer, peccaries, tapirs, pumas, jaguars and ocelots. Deforestation since the Spanish conquest has caused serious soil erosion.

UNESCO records more than 721 vertebrate species in the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, more than half of all mammals known in Honduras, among them the critically endangered Mexican spider monkey, the endangered Central American tapir, the giant anteater, the West Indian manatee and the jaguar. Its 411 bird species include the endangered great green macaw, the scarlet macaw and the harpy eagle, and four marine turtles (loggerhead, leatherback, green and hawksbill) use the coast. Parks set up in the 1980s and 1990s include La Tigra (1980), 238 km² of cloud forest near Tegucigalpa, and Pico Bonito (1987), 1,125 km².

About 10 million people live in Honduras.

Most people speak Spanish. Many meals have corn, beans and rice. Lots of people love to play and watch football.

About 10.2 million people live in Honduras (2026 estimate). Most people speak Spanish, the official language. On the Caribbean coast, many people speak English, and Garifuna communities keep their own traditions, such as a cassava bread called cazabe. Miskito, Pech and Tawahka peoples live in the east.

Corn, beans and rice are everyday foods, with cassava and plantains in many places. Tamales are eaten all over the country. Honduras is one of the world's biggest coffee growers. Football is a passion for many people, and Honduras has played in the World Cup three times.

Britannica describes a population largely mestizo (of mixed Spanish and Indigenous ancestry), with people of West Indian and Garifuna (Afro-Indigenous) heritage forming a significant part of the Caribbean coast, where English is widely spoken. UNESCO lists the Pech, Tawahka, Miskito and Garifuna peoples around Río Plátano. Spanish is official and most people are Christian; surveys indicate Protestant, especially Evangelical, churches now have more members than the Roman Catholic Church.

Corn, beans and rice are the base of the diet, with cassava and plantains; regional dishes include seafood soups in the south, cheese with chili in the west and cazabe (cassava bread) among the Garifuna of the north. Honduras is one of the world's largest coffee producers, bananas built its northern economy in the early 20th century, and remittances from Hondurans abroad, especially in the United States, are important. More than 70 percent of workers are in the informal economy. Football is a national passion: Honduras played in the World Cup in 1982, 2010 and 2014.