Honduran society is, for the most part, rural and poor. The overall standard of living in the nation is one of the lowest in the Western Hemisphere. Foreign as well as domestic assessments of the nation have focused on its poverty to the point where this assessment dominates the outlook of the Honduran people.

contempt the depressing statistics, Honduran society has numerous strengths. Among some of the positive factors are a comparatively high number of grassroots organizations, a peasant movement that has continued even during times of repression, and a corporatist political system in which organizations and classes instead of political parties make their political demands. Positive, too, is the absence of civil war and the high level of terrorism experienced by neighboring countries.

The question for Honduras in the future is how, given the nation's limited resources, to deal with severe poverty and to avoid the repression and violence that poverty often engenders.