Honduras Rising: Five Years of Remarkable Progress in Central America

By Mike Savage, New Canaan, CT – Co-Founder of the Savage-Rivera Foundation

If you’ve followed this blog over the years, you know that my wife Sandra and I have devoted a great deal of our time and energy to helping families battling poverty in Honduras. I’ve written extensively about the challenges facing the country—the economic hardships, the violence, the limited access to healthcare and education. Those issues are real, and they deserve continued attention. But today, I want to tell a different story. I want to talk about what’s going right.

Over the past five years, Honduras has experienced some of the most meaningful improvements the country has seen in a generation. From historic declines in violent crime to steady economic growth, expanding renewable energy infrastructure, and a surge in international investment, there are real, tangible reasons for optimism. And as someone who has spent decades connected to this country through my family, my foundation work, and my personal travels, I can tell you that the change is not just statistical—it’s something you can feel on the ground.

A Historic Turnaround in Public Safety

Perhaps no single indicator captures the transformation in Honduras more dramatically than the decline in violent crime. In 2011, Honduras held the grim distinction of having the highest homicide rate on the planet, with over 93 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. For years, that reputation overshadowed everything else about the country—its culture, its people, its natural beauty. It made international headlines and drove waves of migration northward.

Fast forward to 2024, and the picture has changed remarkably. According to data compiled by the Human Rights Watch World Report, the homicide rate dropped to approximately 26 per 100,000 in 2024, and early police estimates suggest it may have fallen even further in 2025—potentially as low as 15 per 100,000. That represents a decline of more than 70 percent from the 2011 peak, an achievement that few countries mired in similar circumstances have ever managed.

The major cities have shared in these gains. Both Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula recorded homicide rates below 20 per 100,000 in 2024, which means they fell off the list of the fifty most dangerous cities in the world for the first time in over a decade. To put that in perspective, those rates are now comparable to—or lower than—some American cities. It’s a transformation that has allowed families to reclaim public spaces, businesses to operate with greater confidence, and communities to begin healing from years of trauma.

The factors behind this improvement are multifaceted. Police reform efforts that began over a decade ago, including raising recruitment standards, increasing officer salaries by more than 40 percent, and doubling the proportion of women in the force, have gradually built a more professional and credible institution. The Inter-American Development Bank has documented how these systematic reforms contributed to building public trust and reducing violence at the community level. While debates continue about the state of emergency measures implemented in recent years, the long-term trend line is unmistakably positive.

Steady Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction

When I first started writing about poverty in Honduras, the economic outlook felt particularly bleak. The COVID-19 pandemic hit the country harder than almost any of its neighbors, shrinking the economy by more than ten percent in 2020 and pushing poverty rates above 73 percent. Two devastating hurricanes in rapid succession compounded the misery. It was one of the darkest periods in the country’s modern history.

Since then, the recovery has been more robust than many observers expected. According to Congressional Research Service data, Honduras posted average annual GDP growth of roughly 3.8 percent between 2022 and 2024, and the IMF projects continued growth of about 3.3 to 3.5 percent through 2026. Real per capita GDP has now surpassed pre-pandemic levels, meaning the average Honduran is economically better off today than before COVID struck.

More importantly, that growth has translated into meaningful poverty reduction. The national poverty rate fell from 73.6 percent in 2021 to approximately 60 percent by 2025, according to government household survey data. While that number remains far too high, the trajectory represents a decline of nearly 14 percentage points in just four years—a pace of improvement that outstrips what Honduras achieved in the entire decade before the pandemic.

Unemployment has also improved, with women’s employment reaching its lowest rate in a decade by 2023. The minimum wage has seen real growth over the past three years, and public sector investment in infrastructure—roads, schools, housing—has reached levels not seen in over a decade. Private sector investment has actually increased as well, with foreign direct investment in 2023 and 2024 exceeding levels seen during the previous administration. These are the kinds of broad-based improvements that create a foundation for sustained progress, and they align with the gender equality and economic empowerment goals that organizations like ours have long championed.

The Remittance Engine Powering Families

One of the most powerful economic forces in Honduras continues to be remittances—the money sent home by Hondurans working abroad, primarily in the United States. In 2024, remittance inflows reached approximately $9.7 billion, accounting for more than 25 percent of the country’s GDP. In the first quarter of 2025 alone, remittances surged 25 percent compared to the same period the previous year, reaching $2.63 billion.

These funds are not abstract economic statistics. They represent real money flowing directly into families’ hands, covering food, healthcare, school tuition, and home improvements. An estimated 1.3 million Hondurans living in the United States generate income that supports households across every corner of the country. As I’ve discussed in previous articles about community-based approaches to poverty alleviation, these financial lifelines often reach families that government programs cannot, providing a grassroots safety net that has proven remarkably resilient even in times of crisis.

There is growing momentum to channel more of these funds toward productive investment—small business development, home construction, and agricultural improvement—rather than purely consumption spending. If Honduras can get that balance right, remittances could become an even more powerful engine for long-term development.

A Renewable Energy Leader in the Making

One of the most inspiring stories coming out of Honduras in recent years is the country’s rapid expansion of renewable energy. As of 2024, roughly 55 percent of Honduras’s electricity generation comes from renewable sources including hydropower, solar, wind, and biomass. The government has set ambitious targets of 70 percent renewable electricity by 2026 and 80 percent by 2038, as outlined in the country’s Energy Roadmap 2050.

Honduras has already established itself as a Latin American leader in solar energy, having been the second-largest solar electricity producer in the region behind Chile. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has recognized the country’s abundant renewable resources and its potential to further reduce dependence on fossil fuels while addressing climate vulnerability—a critical concern for a nation highly susceptible to hurricanes, droughts, and other climate-driven disruptions.

Perhaps the most compelling example of what renewable energy can mean for communities is the electrification of the Honduran Moskitia, one of the most remote and underserved regions in the country. Through the government’s Rural Electrification Program for Isolated Places (PERLA), developed in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank, a solar photovoltaic microgrid went live in Brus Laguna in 2023. The project brought reliable electricity to over 1,000 households for the first time, enabling 24-hour hospital operations, vaccine cold chain storage, and educational opportunities that were previously impossible. It is a vivid reminder that infrastructure investment changes lives in the most direct and tangible ways.

Nearshoring and the Manufacturing Boom

Global supply chain disruptions in recent years have prompted many North American and European companies to rethink their manufacturing strategies, and Honduras has been a major beneficiary. The country’s textile and apparel manufacturing sector—already one of the largest maquila industries in the world—has seen renewed investment as companies seek to reduce dependence on distant Asian supply chains.

Honduras’s strategic location, preferential trade access under the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), competitive labor costs, and improving infrastructure have made it an increasingly attractive nearshoring destination.

Industrial parks around San Pedro Sula are expanding, creating jobs and drawing foreign investment that flows into the broader economy. The agricultural sector is also modernizing, with growing demand from North America and Europe for sustainably produced coffee, organic products, and value-added agro-processing.

This diversification is crucial. For too long, Honduras’s economy has been overly reliant on a few sectors and vulnerable to external shocks. The emergence of nearshoring as a significant economic driver, alongside growth in tourism, digital services, and renewable energy, is helping to build a more resilient and diversified economic base.

Ripple Effects Across Central America

Honduras does not exist in isolation, and its progress is part of a broader story of transformation across the Northern Triangle of Central America. The security improvements in Honduras mirror similar trends in neighboring El Salvador, which has pursued its own aggressive anti-crime measures. Guatemala, too, has seen increased remittance flows and economic investment, with the three countries collectively receiving record levels of money transfers from their diaspora communities in the United States.

The Central American Electrical Interconnection System, which links the power grids of the region’s six countries, means that Honduras’s renewable energy advances benefit neighboring nations as well.

As Honduras adds clean generation capacity, that power can flow across borders, supporting regional energy security and reducing the collective carbon footprint. Trade integration under CAFTA-DR continues to deepen economic ties, with Honduras’s expanding manufacturing base serving as part of a regional production network that includes assembly, logistics, and export operations spanning multiple countries.

The decline in violence has also had cross-border implications. Reduced crime and improved economic prospects at home mean fewer people feel compelled to make the dangerous journey northward. While migration remains a complex issue driven by many factors, the improvements in Honduras are contributing to a gradual shift in the calculus that families face when deciding whether to stay or go.

Challenges That Remain

I would be doing a disservice to the people of Honduras if I painted an entirely rosy picture. Significant challenges persist. Poverty still affects roughly 60 percent of households. Corruption remains deeply embedded in institutional structures, as the country’s ranking of 154 out of 180 on Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index makes painfully clear. The healthcare system remains strained, particularly in rural areas.

Extortion by criminal groups continues to burden small businesses and transport operators. And the heavy reliance on remittances—while currently a source of strength—represents a structural vulnerability should U.S. immigration policies shift dramatically.

Environmental defenders and journalists face threats and violence. Indigenous communities, particularly the Garífuna people, continue to fight for land rights and fair treatment. The education system, while improving, still struggles with high dropout rates and inadequate resources in many areas.

These are the realities that foundations like ours exist to address, and they remind us that progress and persistent need can coexist in the same country at the same time.

Looking Forward with Cautious Optimism

Honduras held presidential, legislative, and municipal elections in November 2025, and the country now enters a period of political transition. Regardless of political affiliation, the incoming administration inherits an economy in better shape than it was four years ago—with stronger reserves, higher investment levels, and a significantly improved security environment.

The challenge will be sustaining and accelerating these gains while tackling the deep structural issues that hold back progress for millions of Hondurans.

For Sandra and me, the improvements we’ve witnessed reinforce our commitment to the work we do through the Savage-Rivera Foundation. Every box of clothing and books we ship, every family we connect with, every story we share on this blog is part of a larger effort to support a country that is working harder than ever to build a better future for its children. The data tells us that Honduras is moving in the right direction.

The people we meet on the ground confirm it. And that’s a story worth telling.

If you’d like to learn more about our work or contribute to the cause, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Savage-Rivera Foundation. And if you’re interested in exploring more of what I’ve been up to beyond our foundation work—whether it’s travel adventures around the world, my ongoing LEGO collecting hobby, or my sneaker and art collections—I’d love to have you along for the ride.

About Mike Savage

Mike Savage is a New Canaan, CT resident and co-founder of the Savage-Rivera Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting impoverished families and children in Honduras. He is also the founder and CEO of 1-800 Accountant, one of the largest small business accounting firms in the United States. Mike and his wife Sandra have been involved in philanthropic work in Honduras since the late 1990s.