Country · Americas
El Salvador
Republic of El Salvador
El Salvador is a country in Central America. Its capital city is San Salvador. About 6.4 million people live there, in an area of 21 041 square kilometres.
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Where is El Salvador?
El Salvador lies in Central America, on the continent of Americas.
It sits in the northern half of the world, roughly 1 540 km from the equator.
Its coastline is about 307 km long.
It shares a border with 2 countries: Guatemala and Honduras.
How big is El Salvador?
El Salvador covers 21 041 square kilometres.
That is about 8.1 times the size of Luxembourg.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 148th largest.
Spread out evenly, that is roughly 305.2 people per square kilometre.
Who lives in El Salvador?
About 6.4 million people live in El Salvador.
That is the 109th biggest population in the world.
People here speak Spanish.
They pay with the United States dollar ($).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 70 years.
The land of El Salvador
The land in El Salvador sits on average 442 metres above sea level.
Its coast runs for about 307 km. Walking it end to end, at twenty kilometres a day, would take roughly 15 days.
It lies inside the tropics, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes El Salvador different?
A dish the country is known for: Pupusa.
Websites from here often end in .sv.
El Salvador and the rest of the world
Out of every thousand people alive on Earth, about 0.9 live in El Salvador.
It takes up about 0.02 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Americas it is the 25th largest of 35 countries, and the 19th most populated.
That is busier than the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
El Salvador and its neighbours
Honduras, its largest neighbour, is about 5.3 times bigger.
Honduras has more people: 9.6 million against 6.4 million.
Questions children ask
What is the capital of El Salvador?
The capital of El Salvador is San Salvador. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in El Salvador?
About 6.4 million people live in El Salvador, which makes it the 109th most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
Which countries border El Salvador?
El Salvador borders Guatemala and Honduras — 2 neighbours in total.
How big is El Salvador?
El Salvador covers 21 041 square kilometres, making it the 148th largest country in the world. That is about 8.1 times the size of Luxembourg.
Which continent is El Salvador in?
El Salvador is in Americas, in the part called Central America.
Where these numbers come from
Borders and outlines: Natural Earth. Names, capitals, areas, languages and currencies: ISO 3166 data (world-countries). Population: World Bank, 2018. Every derived figure on this page (ranks, density, distance from the equator) is calculated from those values.
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