El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. The country's population in 2023 was estimated to be 6.5 million.
The economy of El Salvador has experienced relatively low rates of GDP growth, in comparison to other developing countries. Rates have not risen above the low single digits in nearly two decades – part of a broader environment of macroeconomic instability which the integration of the United States dollar has done little to improve. One problem that the Salvadoran economy faces is the inequality in the distribution of income. In 2011, El Salvador had a Gini Coefficient of .485, which although similar to that of the United States, leaves 37.8% of the population below the poverty line, due to lower aggregate income. The richest 10% of the population receives approximately 15 times the income of the poorest 40%.
Santa Ana is the second largest city in El Salvador, after the capital of San Salvador. It is located 64 kilometers northwest of San Salvador, the capital city. Santa Ana has approximately 374,830 (2017)) inhabitants and serves both as the capital of the department of Santa Ana and as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name. For its administration the municipality is divided into 35 colonias (neighborhoods) and 318 small villages.
A pupusa is a thick griddle cake or flatbread from El Salvador and Honduras, made with cornmeal or rice flour, similar to the Colombian and Venezuelan arepa. In El Salvador, it has been declared the national dish and has a specific day to celebrate it. It is usually stuffed with one or more ingredients, which may include cheese, chicharrón, squash, or refried beans. It is typically accompanied by curtido and tomato salsa, and is traditionally eaten by hand.
El Salvador International Airport Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, , previously known as Comalapa International Airport and also known as the Comalapa Air Base by the military, is a joint-use civilian and military airport that serves San Salvador, El Salvador. It is located in the south central area of the country, in the city of San Luis Talpa, Department of La Paz, and occupies a triangular plain of 2519.8 acres, which borders the Pacific Ocean to the south, is bordered to the east by the Jiboa River, and to the northwest by the coastal highway. Being close to sea level, it allows aircraft to operate efficiently at maximum capacity. It is connected to the capital of San Salvador, El Salvador, through a modern four-lane motorway, with 42 kilometers travel in an average time of 30 minutes.
Salvadorans, also known as Salvadorians, are citizens of El Salvador, a country in Central America. Most Salvadorans live in El Salvador, although there is also a significant Salvadoran diaspora, particularly in the United States, with smaller communities in other countries around the world.
El Salvador's energy sector is largerly focused on renwables. El Salvador is the largest producer of geothermal energy in Central America. Except for hydroelectric generation, which is almost totally owned and operated by the public company CEL, the rest of the generation capacity is in private hands. With demand expected to grow at a rate of 5% in the coming years, the Government's 2007 National Energy Strategy identified several hydroelectric and geothermal projects as the best option to meet demand in the future and to diversify the country's energy mix.
The Cerrón Grande Hydroelectric Dam spans the Lempa River 78 km (48 mi) north of San Salvador in the municipalities of Potonico, (Chalatenango) and Jutiapa (Cabañas) in El Salvador.
The Lempa River is a 422-kilometre-long (262 mi) river in Central America.
Cimarron Hydroelectric Power Project a hydroelectric power plant in El Salvador, that was to start construction in 2010. The plant would have been be located in the upper basin of the Lempa River, upstream of the Cerrón Grande Hydroelectric Dam. The proposed location of the dam was between the towns of Agua Caliente, Chalatenango on the left shore and Metapán, Santa Ana, on the right shore. A tunnel would divert water from the Lempa River to a powerhouse and substation to be built near Agua Caliente. With an estimated capacity of 261 megawatts, the project would have increased El Salvador's total generation capacity by almost 25%.
Water resources management in El Salvador is characterized by difficulties in addressing severe water pollution throughout much of the country's surface waters due to untreated discharges of agricultural, domestic and industrial run off. The river that drains the capital city of San Salvador is considered to be polluted beyond the capability of most treatment procedures.
Ricardo Ovidio Valencia was a Salvadoran footballer who played most of his career in C.D. FAS.
The Salvadoran women's football championship is the main women's football competition for in El Salvador. It was established in 2010.
Club Social Ciclón del Golfo, commonly known as Ciclon de Golfo is a Salvadoran football club. They currently play in the Tercera Division de Fútbol Salvadoreño.
María Eugenia Brizuela de Ávila is a Salvadoran lawyer who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs for the country from 1999 to 2004. She worked as a Director of Corporate Sustainability at HSBC for Latin America and is based in Mexico City.
Alisson Abarca is a Salvadoran model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe El Salvador 2017. She represented El Salvador at the Miss Universe 2017 pageant.
Pro-Búsqueda is a nongovernmental organization from El Salvador dedicated to the search of children who were disappeared during the Salvadoran Civil War. Its full name is “Asociación Pro-Búsqueda de Niñas y Niños Desaparecidos”, which translates as the Association for the Search of Disappeared Children. Since its start, in 1994, Pro-Búsqueda has documented hundreds of cases of children who were disappeared in the context of the Salvadoran civil war, most of them through the forced disappearance by the Salvadoran armed forces. Through persistent research, Pro-Búsqueda has registered close to a thousand documented cases of disappeared children in El Salvador and the organization has been able to reunite hundreds of children with their biological families. Hundreds more remain unaccounted for.
The Cerrón Grande Reservoir, also known locally as Lake Suchitlán, is a reservoir in northern El Salvador and the largest body of fresh water in the country. The reservoir was filled between 1973 and 1976, subsequent to the construction of the Cerrón Grande Hydroelectric Dam. The Cerrón Grande Reservoir is among the most polluted bodies of fresh water in Central America.
The Airport of the Pacific is a planned joint-use civilian international airport and military base which will be located in Conchagua, El Salvador, and will serve the city of La Unión. The airport was proposed by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele during his 2019 presidential campaign as a part of his "Plan Cuscatlán" and construction was approved by the Legislative Assembly on 26 April 2022. Terraforming began in March 2023.
