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

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

Density (2013)

 Municipalities
1.AtlántidaLa Ceiba344,099436,252Increase 18.444,372 99.88
2.CholutecaCholuteca390,805437,618Increase 17.484,360 100.416
3.ColónTrujillo246,708309,926Increase 18.988,249 37.610
4.ComayaguaComayagua352,881493,466Increase 25.335,124 96.321
5.CopánSanta Rosa de Copán288,766371,057Increase 25.443,242 114.523
6.CortésSan Pedro Sula1,202,5101,562,394Increase 30.583,923 398.312
7.El ParaísoYuscarán350,054455,507Increase 22.057,489 60.818
8.Francisco MorazánTegucigalpa1,180,6761,508,906Increase 21.448,619 175.128
9.Gracias a DiosPuerto Lempira67,38490,765Increase 31.0616,997 5.36
10.IntibucáLa Esperanza179,862232,553Increase 29.273,123 74.517
11.Islas de la BahíaCoxen Hole38,07362,557Increase 29.12236 265.14
12.La PazLa Paz156,560198,926Increase 25.402,331 85.319
13.LempiraGracias250,067321,179Increase 26.194,234 75.928
14.OcotepequeNueva Ocotepeque108,029146,030Increase 22.611,630 89.617
15.OlanchoJuticalpa419,561520,761Increase 21.4524,057 21.623
16.Santa BárbaraSanta Bárbara342,054421,337Increase 17.635,024 83.928
17.ValleNacaome151,841174,511Increase 13.021,665 104.89
18.YoroYoro465,414570,595Increase 18.637,781 73.311
Total––6,535,3448,303,771Increase 27.06112,457 73.9298

Population data source:[6]

See also

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. 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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