Departments of Honduras

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

• 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

Atlántida

Choluteca

Colón

Comayagua

Copán

Cortés

El
Paraíso

Francisco
Morazán

Gracias
a Dios

Intibucá

Bay Islands

La
Paz

Lempira

Ocotepeque

Olancho

Santa
Bárbara

Valle

Yoro

	Department	Department capital	Population			Area (km2) [4]	Population density (2013)	Municipalities
			2001 census	2013 census [5]	Change (%)
1.	Atlántida	La Ceiba	344,099	436,252	18.44	4,372	99.8	8
2.	Bay Islands	Roatan	38,073	62,557	17.48	4,360	100.4	16
3.	Choluteca	Choluteca	246,708	309,926	18.98	8,249	37.6	10
4.	Colón	Trujillo	246,708	309,926	25.33	5,124	96.3	21
5.	Comayagua	Comayagua	352,881	493,466	25.44	3,242	114.5	23
6.	Copán	Santa Rosa de Copán	288,766	371,057	30.58	3,923	398.3	12
7.	Cortés	San Pedro Sula	1,202,510	1,562,394	22.05	7,489	60.8	18
8.	El Paraíso	Yuscarán	350,054	455,507	21.44	8,619	175.1	28
9.	Francisco Morazán	Tegucigalpa	1,180,676	1,508,906	31.06	16,997	5.3	6
10.	Gracias a Dios	Puerto Lempira	67,384	90,765	29.27	3,123	74.5	17
11.	Intibucá	La Esperanza	179,862	232,553	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	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

• Hondurasportal
• Municipalities of Honduras
• List of Honduras-related topics
• List of Honduran departments by Human Development Index
• ISO 3166-2:HN

References

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. Honduras at GeoHive Archived 2016-08-02 at the Wayback Machine .
5. Honduran National Institute of Statistics Archived 2010-10-17 at the Wayback Machine
6. "GeoHive - Honduras population statistics". 2 August 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-08-02. Retrieved 16 October 2017.

External links

• Interactive Map of Honduras Archived 2012-03-24 at the Wayback Machine
• Statoids: Departments of Honduras
• "Geo Postal Codes database (Intibucá)". Mapanet. Madrid, España: Divex Turismo, S.L. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
• "Cuadro de Códigos de Departamentos y Municipios de Honduras" [Table of Honduran Department and Municipality Codes](PDF). Registro Nacional de las Personas Honduras (RPN) (in Spanish). Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
• Honduras distance Calculator Archived 2012-02-29 at the Wayback Machine