Country · Americas
El Salvador
Republic of El Salvador
El Salvador is a country in Central America. About 6.4 million people live there, in an area of 21 041 square kilometres. Its capital city is San Salvador.
Picture credit: Daniel chavez castro (CC BY 3.0) · Combo7 (Public domain) · randreu (CC BY 3.0) · randreu (CC BY 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
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 everybody out evenly and you get about 305.2 people on every square kilometre.
That is busier than the world average of roughly 60 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 of 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 one lives in El Salvador.
It takes up about 0.02 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Americas the country ranks 25th of 35 by size, and 19th by population.
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.
Nature and animals
Of the animals on this site, one lives wild in El Salvador: Black-handed spider monkey. The highest mountain in the country is Cerro El Pital, at 2 730 metres. The longest river in the country is the Lempa River. The largest lake in the country is Lake Ilopango.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under free licences — every credit is on the page itself and in the picture credits.
How big is El Salvador compared with the United States?
- The United States is about 445 times as big as El Salvador: 9 372 610 km² against 21 041 km².
- The United Kingdom is about 12 times as big as El Salvador: 242 900 km² against 21 041 km².
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?
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.
What is the highest mountain in El Salvador?
The highest mountain in El Salvador is Cerro El Pital, 2 730 metres above sea level. It is the country's highest point.
What is the longest river in El Salvador?
The longest river in El Salvador is the Lempa River. Of its 422 kilometres, about 360 run through the country.
What is the largest lake in El Salvador?
The largest lake in El Salvador is Lake Ilopango. It covers about 72 km².
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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