Demographics of Honduras

Structure of the population (01.07.2007) (estimates) (data refer to projections based on the 2001 Population Census):[6]

Structure of the population (01.07.2010) (estimates):

Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):[7]

Mestizos (meaning mixed European and Amerindian) have been reported by the CIA World Factbook to be about 87% of the population of Honduras.[8] As in other Latin American countries, the question of racial breakdown of a national population is contentious. Since the beginning of the 20th century at least, Honduras has publicly framed itself as a mestizo nation, along other Latin American countries such as Guatemala or Mexico, ignoring and at times disparaging both the European component of the population and the surviving Amerindian population that was still regarded as "pure blood". It's well known that many Hondurans of European or almost entirely Amerindian background consider themselves mestizo.[9][10]

Because of social stigmas attached, many Honduran people denied having African ancestry, and after African descended Caribbean workers arrived in Honduras, an active campaign to denigrate all people of African descent, made persons of mixed race anxious to deny any African ancestry. Hence official statistics quite uniformly under-represent those people who have ancestry in favor of a "two race" solution.[9]

Examples of Honduran mestizos are, Poet Clemetina Suarez, actress America Ferrera, Novelist and poet Roberto Sosa, Footballer Noel Valladares, Ex president Manuel Zelaya.

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  Honduran-American actress, America Ferrera.
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  Novelist, Roberto Sosa.
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  Footballer, Noel Valladares.
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  Actor, Carlos "Ned Arnel" Mencia.

The Amerindian population is the first biggest minority in Honduras, the biggest ethnic group that made up the native population is the Lencan. These people has been living in Honduran territyory before the colonization of the americas developing their pown societies and civilizations and still has many communities all along the country. According to the 2001 census the Amerindian population in Honduras included 381,495 people (6.3% of the total population).[11] With the exception of the Lenca and the Ch'orti' they still keep their language.

Six different Amerindian groups were counted at the 2001 census:

• the Lenca (279,507 in 2001;4.6% of the total population) living in the La Paz, Intibucá, and Lempira departments;
• the Miskito (51,607 in 2001; 0.8%) living on the northeast coast along the border with Nicaragua.
• the Ch'orti' (34,453 in 2001;0.6% of the total population), a Mayan group living in the northwest on the border with Guatemala;
• the Tolupan (also called Jicaque, "Xicaque", or Tol; 9,617 in 2001; 0.2% of the total population), living in the reserve of the Montaña de la Flor and parts of the department of Yoro;
• the Pech or Paya Indians (3,848 in 2001; 0.1% of the total population) living in a small area in the Olancho department;
• the Mayangna or Tawahka (2,463 in 2001; <0.1%)

Examples of Honduran natives are the many Mayan rules of Copan and other Mayan cities, native leaders as Lempira and Cicumba, and environmental and feminist activist Berta Caceres.

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  Copan founder, king Knich Yax Kuk Moo.
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  Mayan ruler, Kʼakʼ Yipyaj Chan Kʼawiil.
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  Lencan ruler, Lempira.
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  Lencan environmental activist, Berta Caceres.

The Afro-Honduran population consist of poeple of African descent, Garifuna and Creoles. Most of them are descendants of African people brought by the Spanish and other European colonizers between the 16th and 18th centuries. Many of them came from the west African coast, from places like Angola or Senegambia, where European bought slaves for their colonies, while others came from the other colonies in the Caribbean.

• The Garifuna are descendants of Carib, Arawak, and West African people. This ethnic group has its origins in a group from St. Vincent islands in the Caribbean, who came in 1797. At the 2001 census 46,448 people were registered as Garifuna, 0.8% of the total population of Honduras.[11] The Garifuna speak an Arawakan language. They live along the entire Caribbean coastline of Honduras, and in the Bay Islands.
• The number of Creoles was 12,370 (0.2%) in 2001.

Examples of well-known Afro-Hondurans are footballers David Suazo, Victor "Muma" Bernardez, Dr. Emet Cherefant, and Wilson Palacios.

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  Footballer, David Suazo
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  Footballer, Wilson Palacios

White people along with Afro-descendants and Amerindians belong to the minorities of Honduras. Most of the Honduran whites are descendants of the Spanish colonist, mostly people from southern Spain, they inhabit most of the western part of the country. Other Honduran whites are descendants of European immigrants who arrived at the beginning of the 20th century. The Italians that gained residence in Honduras were 389 in 2014, nearly all of them concentrated in the capital area.[12] However, the term "white person" in Honduras remains somewhat ambiguous, Honduras has one of the largest Arab communities in Latin America, of which are considered to be white under the standards of the country and other Latino countries, but not for other nations. Percentages of whites varied from between 4% to 9%, due to the fact that the majority of Hondurans identify themselves as mestizos, regardless of their ethnic and racial category. Which makes it more difficult to study the number of people who fit into the white category in Honduras. In a census a total of 450,000 of people from Honduras have appeared who identify themselves as whites, therefore it gives the percentage is 4%.

However, other studies report that the percentge could rise much more, reaching close to a half a million white people in Honduras, which according to official national sources would make a percentage of between 5% to 6.9% of white Hondurans. This is because the majority of whites in Honduras do not identify themselves as Euro-descendants as such, adopting and feeling more identified with the mestizo identity.

Examples of white Hondurans are ex president Simon Azcona del Hoyo, biomedic Salvador Moncada, Film director Juan Carlos Fanconi, Politician Roberto Micheletti, General Florencio Xatruch and former president of the Central American federation Don Francisco Morazán Quezada.

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  Sir. Salvador Moncada. Honduran biomedic.
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  Juan Carlos Fanconi, Film director.
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  Ex president, José Simón Azcona del Hoyo.
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  Central American president, General Francisco Morazán.
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  Military leader, General. Florencio Xatruch.
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  Ex president, Francisco Bertrand.

There's a small Chinese community in Honduras. A lawyer of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH) stated that the Chinese community in Honduras is rather small. Many of the Chinese are immigrants who arrived from China after the revolution and their descendants.[13]

Honduras hosts a significant Palestinian community (the vast majority of whom are Christian Arabs).[14] These Arab-Hondurans are sometimes called "Turcos", because they arrived in Honduras using Turkish travel documents, as their homeland was then under the control of the Ottoman Empire. The Palestinians arrived in the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, establishing themselves especially in the city of San Pedro Sula.[15] As mentioned earlier, they are also considered whites in the country's censuses, in total the Arab-Hondurans make up 3% of the Honduran population.

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  Bussiness man Miguel Facusse, son of immigrants from the Ottoman empire.
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  Tv host Salvador Nasralla, son of Palestinian immigrants.
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  Dr Kerim Gattas Asfura. Of arab descent.