Country context
The tropical country of El Salvador has a population of 5.8 million people and is situated within 21,040km2 in Central America. Guatemala borders El Salvador to the west, Honduras on the north and east, and Nicaragua is located to south-west of the Fonseca Gulf. The country is divided into 14 departments and 35 per cent of the total population lives in the country's capital, San Salvador. Spanish is the official language and Catholicism and Protestantism are the predominant religions.
Throughout its geological and hydro-meteorological history, El Salvador has been the setting for numerous natural hazards. The country has been affected by natural disasters such as Hurricane Mitch in 1998, Hurricane Stan in 2007 and recently Tropical Storm Ida in 2009, as well as the earthquakes in 1986 and 2001, which impacted several of the country's productive regions and brought about a considerable loss of human life.
According to the 2009 Human Development Report, El Salvador is classified as 106 out of 177 countries in the human development index. Life expectancy reaches 71.3 years; 82 per cent of the population is literate; 37.2 per cent of the population lives under the poverty line. Whilst in the recent years significant economic changes have occurred, El Salvador continues to be one of the ten poorest countries in Latin America.
