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Updates: 

I have found sources for the populations of the departments in the censuses of 1881, 1895, and 2001, and more details of nineteenth-century changes.

Erratum: In "Administrative Divisions of Countries", page 165, the ISO code for Santa Bárbara was given incorrectly. The correct code is SB.

Country overview: 

Short name	HONDURAS
ISO code	HN
FIPS code	HO
Language	Spanish (es)
Time zone	-6
Capital	Tegucigalpa

 

Honduras has been an independent country during the entire 20th century.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Honduras
2. Dutch: Honduras, Republiek Honduras (formal)
3. English: Republic of Honduras (formal)
4. Finnish: Honduras
5. French: Honduras, République f du Honduras m
6. German: Honduras n
7. Icelandic: Hondúras
8. Italian: Honduras m
9. Norwegian: Honduras, Republikken Honduras (formal)
10. Portuguese: Honduras fp, República f das Honduras fp (formal)
11. Russian: Республика Гондурас (formal)
12. Spanish: Honduras, República f de Honduras f (formal)
13. Swedish: Honduras
14. Turkish: Honduras Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Spanish honduras: depths, after Cape Honduras

Primary subdivisions: 

Honduras is divided into eighteen departamentos (departments).

Department	HASC	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Atlántida	HN.AT	HO01	344,099	4,251	1,641	La Ceiba
Choluteca	HN.CH	HO02	390,805	4,211	1,626	Choluteca
Colón	HN.CL	HO03	246,708	8,875	3,427	Trujillo
Comayagua	HN.CM	HO04	352,881	5,196	2,006	Comayagua
Copán	HN.CP	HO05	288,766	3,203	1,237	Santa Rosa (de Copán)
Cortés	HN.CR	HO06	1,202,510	3,954	1,527	San Pedro Sula
El Paraíso	HN.EP	HO07	350,054	7,218	2,787	Yuscarán
Francisco Morazán	HN.FM	HO08	1,180,676	7,946	3,068	Tegucigalpa
Gracias a Dios	HN.GD	HO09	67,384	16,630	6,421	Puerto Lempira
Intibucá	HN.IN	HO10	179,862	3,072	1,186	La Esperanza
Islas de la Bahía	HN.IB	HO11	38,073	261	101	Roatán
La Paz	HN.LP	HO12	156,560	2,331	900	La Paz
Lempira	HN.LE	HO13	250,067	4,290	1,656	Gracias
Ocotepeque	HN.OC	HO14	108,029	1,680	649	Nueva Ocotepeque
Olancho	HN.OL	HO15	419,561	24,351	9,402	Juticalpa
Santa Bárbara	HN.SB	HO16	342,054	5,115	1,975	Santa Bárbara
Valle	HN.VA	HO17	151,841	1,565	604	Nacaome
Yoro	HN.YO	HO18	465,414	7,939	3,065	Yoro
18 departments			6,535,344	112,088	43,278
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. If periods are replaced by hyphens, these are the same as the department codes from ISO standard 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 2001-07-28 census.

Postal codes: 

The Universal Postal Union document says that Honduras uses postal codes of six characters: two letters, representing the department, followed by four digits. I have not observed these codes in actual use.

Further subdivisions:

See the Municipalities of Honduras page.

There is a special district called Distrito Central, which is included in Francisco Morazán in the table above. It has an area of 1,648 sq. km., and contains the cities of Tegucigalpa and Comayaguela. Distrito Central ranks as a department in some ways, but in others it is subordinate to Francisco Morazán. The standards don't list it as a separate department. Aside from that, the departments are further subdivided into 298 municipalities (282 in 1980, 291 in 1995). The municipalities are subdivided into aldeas (villages) in suburban areas and caseríos (hamlets) in rural areas.

Territorial extent: 

1. Islas de la Bahía consists of islands in the Gulf of Honduras, of which the largest are Roatán, Guanaja, Utila, Barbareta; and, farther offshore, the Islas Santanilla.
2. Valle includes Isla el Tigre, Isla Meanguera, and other islands in the Gulf of Fonseca.

The UN LOCODE page  for Honduras lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

1. El Paraíso: = paradise
2. Francisco Morazán: named for Francisco Morazán (1799-1842), Central American revolutionary
3. Gracias a Dios: for Cape Gracias a Dios, = thanks to God
4. Islas de la Bahía: = islands of the bay
5. Lempira: for Lempira (1499?-1537), native leader in the resistance to the conquistadores; his name means "gentleman of the mountains".
6. Tegucigalpa: Nahuatl for "silver mountain".
7. Valle: = valley

Change history: 

1. 1824: Tegucigalpa became alternate capital of Honduras (formerly Comayagua was the only capital).
2. 1825-06-28: Honduras divided into seven departments. Choluteca corresponded roughly to modern Choluteca and Valle; Comayagua, to Comayagua and La Paz; Gracias, to Copán, Intibucá, Lempira, and Ocotepeque; Olancho, to Olancho; Santa Bárbara, to Cortés and Santa Bárbara; Tegucigalpa, to El Paraíso and Francisco Morazán; and Yoro, to Atlántida, Colón, Gracias a Dios, Islas de la Bahía, and Yoro. The capitals had the same names as their departments, except that Juticalpa was the capital of Olancho.
3. 1869-05-28: Copán department split from Gracias. El Paraíso department split from Tegucigalpa, with the addition of Danlí and Teupasenti municipalities from Olancho department. La Paz department split from Comayagua.
4. 1872-03-14: Islas de la Bahía department split from Yoro.
5. 1880-10-30: Tegucigalpa became permanent capital of Honduras.
6. 1881-12-19: Colón department split from Yoro.
7. 1883-04-16: Intibucá department split from Gracias.
8. 1893-07-04: Cortés department split from Santa Bárbara. It also acquired part of Yoro department, but that part was restored to Yoro on 1893-07-17.
9. 1893-07-11: Valle department split from Choluteca. For a short period, the same area had previously been designated as La Victoria department.
10. 1902-02-24: Atlántida department formed from parts of Colón (La Ceiba and El Porvenir municipalities) and Yoro (Tela municipality).
11. 1906-02-17: Ocotepeque department split from Copán.
12. 1909-08-17: Nueva Armenia municipality transferred from Colón department to Atlántida.
13. 1934-06-07: Ocotepeque, the capital of Ocotepeque department, destroyed when the Márchala River flooded. A new city, Nueva Ocotepeque, was built five km. away. Its official date of foundation was 1935-09-17.
14. 1943: Name of Gracias department changed to Lempira; name of Tegucigalpa department changed to Francisco Morazán.
15. 1957-02-21: Gracias a Dios department formed from all of Mosquitia territory and part of Colón department.
16. 1958: Official name of Nueva Ocotepeque, the department capital, changed to Ocotepeque; however, the longer name lingers on.
17. ~1975: Capital of Gracias a Dios department moved from Brus Laguna to Puerto Lempira.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Cortés: Cortez (obsolete)
2. Lempira: Gracias (obsolete)
3. Francisco Morazán: Tegucigalpa (obsolete)

Population history:

Department	1881	1895	1910	1916	1930	1940	1950-06-18	1961-04-17	1974-03-06	1988-05-29	2001-07-28
Atlántida			11,372	20,905	32,506	43,862	63,582	92,914	148,440	238,742	344,099
Choluteca	42,781	33,665	45,817	47,771	69,096	88,245	107,271	149,175	192,145	295,484	390,805
Colón	6,465	13,409	11,191	12,918	31,787	30,644	35,465	41,904	77,239	149,677	246,708
Comayagua	16,311	21,713	26,339	31,199	42,987	54,046	68,171	96,442	135,455	239,859	352,881
Copán	32,151	44,798	40,282	47,827	66,208	82,053	95,880	126,183	151,331	219,455	288,766
Cortés		13,665	23,559	30,314	58,273	87,269	125,728	200,099	373,629	662,772	1,202,510
El Paraíso	16,075	31,245	42,118	40,857	56,300	67,742	82,572	106,823	140,840	254,295	350,054
Francisco Morazán	59,015	58,984	81,844	86,119	113,483	158,918	190,359	284,428	451,778	828,274	1,180,676
Gracias a Dios								10,905	21,079	34,970	67,384
Intibucá		18,957	27,285	31,173	39,002	52,650	59,362	73,138	81,685	124,681	179,862
Islas de la Bahía	2,834	3,990	4,893	5,599	5,480	7,025	8,058	8,961	13,227	22,062	38,073
La Paz	19,829	20,616	28,764	30,601	39,140	48,516	51,220	60,600	65,390	105,927	156,560
Lempira	42,630	36,260	49,955	51,740	64,947	78,977	90,908	111,546	127,465	177,055	250,067
Ocotepeque			28,190	29,787	37,494	46,020	45,673	52,540	51,161	74,276	108,029
Olancho	28,150	36,273	43,368	45,904	53,412	64,521	83,910	110,744	151,923	283,852	419,561
Santa Bárbara	29,474	26,018	39,064	43,020	61,260	80,366	96,397	146,909	185,163	278,868	342,054
Valle		24,133	30,479	28,723	40,254	53,666	65,349	80,907	90,954	119,645	151,841
Yoro	11,574	16,424	18,926	21,540	42,555	63,339	98,700	130,547	194,953	333,508	465,414
Totals	307,289	400,350	553,446	605,997	854,184	1,107,859	1,368,605	1,884,765	2,653,857	4,443,402	6,535,344
Population of Mosquitia territory included in Colón until 1950. Department: Gracias listed under Lempira, Tegucigalpa listed under Francisco Morazán (1881-1940). Numbers are census years. Sources: Instituto Nacional de Estadística  Website. 1895 data are from "Honduras: Estructura Territorial y Estadística según Censo 1895", William V. Davidson. Academia Hondureña de Geografía e Historia, Tegucigalpa, 2002. Davidson has analyzed the original census forms in the Honduran archives, and calculated the figures given above, which differ slightly from those shown on the official Website.

Sources: 

1. [1] Library of Congress country study  (retrieved 1999).
2. [2] Honduras en Cifras 1964. Dirección General de Estadística y Censos, Tegucigalpa, Dec. 1965.