Departments of Honduras

Honduras is divided into 18 departments (Spanish: departamentos). Each department is headed by a governor, who is appointed by the President of Honduras. The governor represents the executive branch in the region in addition to acting as intermediary between municipalities and various national authorities; resolves issues arising between municipalities; oversees the penitentiaries and prisons in his department; and regularly works with the various Secretaries of State that form the President's Cabinet. To be eligible for appointment as a governor, the individual must: a) live for five consecutive years in the department; b) be Honduran; c) be older than 18 years of age and; d) know how to read and write.[1][2][3]

Evolution of Honduras's territorial organization

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  • 1825: The constitutional congress convened in that year orders that the state be divided into seven departments: Comayagua, Denver, Santa Bárbara, Tegucigalpa, Choluteca, Yoro, Olancho, and Gracias (later renamed Lempira).
  • 1834: An extraordinary constitutional assembly reduces the number of departments to four: this attempt fails to prosper, and the 1825 division remains in force.
  • 1869: Congress orders the creation of the departments of La Paz (broken away from Comayagua), El Paraíso (from Tegucigalpa and Olancho), Copán (from Gracias), and La Mosquitia (from Yoro).
  • 1872: A department called Victoria is ordered to be split from Choluteca, but this never comes into effect. Islas de la Bahía department is founded (the islands were ceded to Honduras by the United Kingdom in 1860).
  • 1881: La Mosquitia joined with portions of Yoro to form Colón department.
  • 1883: Intibucá department is formed from sections of La Paz and Gracias.
  • 1893: Valle department (split from Choluteca) and Cortés department (split from Santa Bárbara) are created.
  • 1902: Parts of Yoro and Colón are taken to form the new department of Atlántida.
  • 1906: Ocotepeque department is created by dividing the territory of Copán.
  • 1957: Colón is divided in two to create Gracias a Dios department.

Departments of Honduras

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Department Department
capital
Population
(2001 census)
Population
(2013 census)[4]
Population
change (%)
Area
(km2)[5]
Population

Density (2013)

Municipalities
1. Atlántida La Ceiba 344,099 436,252   18.44 4,372 99.8 8
2. Choluteca Choluteca 390,805 437,618   17.48 4,360 100.4 16
3. Colón Trujillo 246,708 309,926   18.98 8,249 37.6 10
4. Comayagua Comayagua 352,881 493,466   25.33 5,124 96.3 21
5. Copán Santa Rosa de Copán 288,766 371,057   25.44 3,242 114.5 23
6. Cortés San Pedro Sula 1,202,510 1,562,394   30.58 3,923 398.3 12
7. El Paraíso Yuscarán 350,054 455,507   22.05 7,489 60.8 18
8. Francisco Morazán Tegucigalpa 1,180,676 1,508,906   21.44 8,619 175.1 28
9. Gracias a Dios Puerto Lempira 67,384 90,765   31.06 16,997 5.3 6
10. Intibucá La Esperanza 179,862 232,553   29.27 3,123 74.5 17
11. Islas de la Bahía Roatan 38,073 62,557   29.12 236 265.1 4
12. La Paz La Paz 156,560 198,926   25.40 2,331 85.3 19
13. Lempira Gracias 250,067 321,179   26.19 4,234 75.9 28
14. Ocotepeque Nueva Ocotepeque 108,029 146,030   22.61 1,630 89.6 17
15. Olancho Juticalpa 419,561 520,761   21.45 24,057 21.6 23
16. Santa Bárbara Santa Bárbara 342,054 421,337   17.63 5,024 83.9 28
17. Valle Nacaome 151,841 174,511   13.02 1,665 104.8 9
18. Yoro Yoro 465,414 570,595   18.63 7,781 73.3 11
Total 6,535,344 8,303,771   27.06 112,457 73.9 298

Population data source:[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Honduras: Political Organization / Organizacion Política". Pdba.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  2. ^ "DECRETO NUMERO 134-90 : EL CONGRESO NACIONAL" (PDF). Poderjudicial.gob.hn. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 October 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  3. ^ "Honduras: Political Organization / Organizacion Política". Pdba.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  4. ^ Honduran National Institute of Statistics Archived 2010-10-17 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Honduras at GeoHive Archived 2016-08-02 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ^ "GeoHive - Honduras population statistics". 2 August 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-08-02. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
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