El Salvador

Index

More Facts & Figures

National name: República de El Salvador

Current government officials

Languages: Spanish, Nahua (among some Amerindians)

Ethnicity/race: mestizo 90%, white 9%, Amerindian 1%

National Holiday: Independence Day, September 15

Religions: Catholics 83%; growing population of evangelical Protestants (1992)

Literacy rate: 81.1% (2011 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2011 est.): $44.78 billion; per capita $7,600. Real growth rate: –2.0%. Inflation: 5.1%. Unemployment: 7%. Arable land: 32%. Agriculture: coffee, sugar, corn, rice, beans, oilseed, cotton, sorghum; beef, dairy products; shrimp. Labor force: 2.577 million; agriculture 9.7%, industry 29.6%, services 60.7% (2012 est.). Industries: food processing, beverages, petroleum, chemicals, fertilizer, textiles, furniture, light metals. Natural resources: hydropower, geothermal power, petroleum, arable land. Exports: $5.309 billion (2011 est.): offshore assembly exports, coffee, sugar, shrimp, textiles, chemicals, electricity. Imports: $10.2 billion (2011 est.): raw materials, consumer goods, capital goods, fuels, foodstuffs, petroleum, electricity. Major trading partners: U.S., Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Germany, China (2006).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 1 million (2011); mobile cellular: 7.7 million (2011). Radio broadcast stations: AM 52, FM 144, shortwave 0 (2005). Television broadcast stations: 5 (1997). Internet hosts: 22,372 (2011). Internet users: 746,000 (2011).

Transportation: Railways: total: 283 km; note: railways not in operation since 2005 because of disuse and lack of maintenance due to high costs (2011). Highways: total: 10,866 km; paved: 2,827 km (including 327 km of expressways); unpaved: 8,059 km (2011 est.). Waterways: Rio Lempa partially navigable (2004). Ports and harbors: Acajutla, Puerto Cutuco. Airports: 65 (2011).

International disputes: in 1992, the ICJ ruled on the delimitation of "bolsones" (disputed areas) along the El Salvador-Honduras boundary, but despite OAS intervention and a further ICJ ruling in 2003, full demarcation of the border remains stalled; the 1992 ICJ ruling advised a tripartite resolution to a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca advocating Honduran access to the Pacific; El Salvador continues to claim tiny Conejo Island, not identified in the ICJ decision, off Honduras in the Gulf of Fonseca.

Major sources and definitions