Tegucigalpa 2026The independent atlas report on Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Tegucigalpa in 200 numbers. Read this before you read anything else.

A subtropical highland capital, 1,447,000 people across the central Honduran cordillera, the city profile in one stat grid.

Tegucigalpa scored 5.6 on the everycity index. A single person spends $780 a month here including rent, groceries, transport and utilities. A working couple spends $1,180. Internet runs at a median 62 Mbps per OOKLA Speedtest April 2026. The average reported salary is $620 a month before tax. Honduras's personal income tax under the 2024 schedule sits at 0 percent below 199,039 HNL a year, 15 percent from 199,040 to 303,499 HNL, 20 percent from 303,500 to 705,813 HNL, and 25 percent above 705,813 HNL. Social security contributions add 11.5 percent on the employee side. Safety reads 4.8 on a 0 to 10 scale, in the red band, the second lowest urban safety score on this atlas after Caracas and Port au Prince, with the night safety subindex at 4.0, the female solo subindex at 4.4, and the family subindex at 5.4. The metro area sits at 14.072275 degrees, negative 87.192136 degrees. The summer high lands at 30 Celsius, the winter low at 13. The city averages 2,460 sunshine hours a year.

Compared with peer cities, Tegucigalpa sits 22 percent below San Salvador on monthly outlay, similar to Managua, and 28 percent below Guatemala City. See San Pedro Sula vs Tegucigalpa for the head to head. The methodology page covers the full index method.

Risk, by the subindex.

No moral panic, no rose tint. Four subindices, referenced to the Honduras Observatorio de la Violencia at UNAH 2024 and the InSight Crime regional homicide report 2024.

Tegucigalpa's overall safety score lands at 4.8, in the demanding band. Honduras's national homicide rate per the UNAH Observatorio de la Violencia 2024 report was 32.6 per 100,000 residents, the third highest in the Western Hemisphere after Jamaica and Venezuela. Tegucigalpa's metro homicide rate runs 38 per 100,000, lower than the San Pedro Sula peak of 96 in 2014 but still in the global top 30. The structural drivers are the MS 13 and Barrio 18 gang dispute (the 1990s deportation cycle from US prisons brought the LA based gangs to the Honduran Salvadoran corridor), the cocaine transit corridor (Honduras is a structural transit point for South American cocaine moving north), and the macro economic context (Honduras's GDP per capita is $2,840). The 2022 Xiomara Castro government inherited a Bukele model debate; the gang policy has not adopted the El Salvador maximum security route. Petty theft, armed robbery, motorcycle theft, and homicide in the working class hillside neighborhoods are the structural risks. SafetyWing covers expat short term insurance. Travel advisories from the US State Department (Level 3 Reconsider Travel), the UK FCDO, and the Canadian Global Affairs office are in place as of May 2026.

The areas that are workable for expat professionals are Colonia Palmira, Lomas del Mayab, El Hatillo, Lomas del Guijarro, and the diplomatic enclave surrounding the US Embassy. The northern Comayaguela district, the Colonia Kennedy, and the Bajos de Comayaguela are the highest risk neighborhoods. The Honduran Tourist Police (Policia Turistica) maintains a presence at the main expat zones. See San Pedro Sula vs Tegucigalpa for the head to head safety read.

Who pays, and how much.

Salaries are gross monthly figures, blended from the Honduran INE 2024 labour force survey and the international NGO compensation market.

Largest employers in metro Tegucigalpa

1. The Government of Honduras (the largest single employer, the federal civil service)
2. Banco Atlantida and Banco Ficohsa (the two largest Honduran commercial banks)
3. Empresa Nacional de Energia Electrica (ENEE, the state electricity utility)
4. The Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras (UNAH, the national university, multi campus across the country with the flagship in Tegucigalpa)
5. Hospital Escuela (the public teaching hospital, the largest medical employer)
6. Group Karims and the maquila apparel sector (concentrated in San Pedro Sula but with Tegucigalpa back office presence)
7. The US Embassy Honduras and the broader international donor community (USAID, the UN, the IADB, the World Bank, GIZ, JICA)
8. Standard Fruit Company and Chiquita Brands (the historical banana republics, still present)

Tegucigalpa is the Honduran administrative capital but not the economic capital: San Pedro Sula carries the maquila apparel and palm oil export economy, while Tegucigalpa runs the civil service, the central bank, and the international donor cluster. The remittance economy from the Honduran diaspora in the United States is the structural macroeconomic feature: $9.2 billion in 2024 per the Banco Central de Honduras, representing 28 percent of GDP, the highest dependency ratio in Central America. For an after tax estimate, run the tax calculator. Wise handles the USD to HNL remittance.

Six quarters, one verdict each.

A working map of where to live in Tegucigalpa in 2026.

The full walk through is in the Tegucigalpa neighborhoods longform, scheduled for Q3 2026.

For the kids, and the postgrads.

School and university density.

International schools

• The American School of Tegucigalpa (Escuela Americana, the longest established US curriculum school, since 1946, the structural pull for the US Embassy and international NGO families)
• Discovery School Tegucigalpa (IB curriculum)
• Mayan World International School (Universidad Tecnologica Centroamericana affiliated, IB Diploma)
• The Macris School (US curriculum)
• Instituto San Francisco (Jesuit, Spanish curriculum)
• Escuela Internacional Sampedrana (in San Pedro Sula, 245 kilometers away)

Universities

• The Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras (UNAH, the national autonomous university, the largest in Honduras)
• The Universidad Tecnologica Centroamericana (UNITEC, the largest private university)
• The Universidad Nacional de Agricultura (in Catacamas, three hours away)
• The Escuela Agricola Panamericana Zamorano (the Pan American School of Agriculture, the historic Rockefeller and Stimson backed agricultural college 35 kilometers east, the largest agronomy school in Central America)
• The Universidad Catolica de Honduras

The Escuela Agricola Panamericana Zamorano (founded 1942 by United Fruit Company with US Secretary of State Henry Stimson backing) is the structural pull for any Central American agronomy or tropical agriculture family: the four year residential bachelor degree program is the most respected agricultural program in Central America, with full scholarship coverage for half the student body from across Latin America and the Caribbean. The Honduras country page covers the broader education context.

What makes the city itself.

Food signatures, nightlife rating, and the cultural through line.

The food signatures of Tegucigalpa include the baleada (the flour tortilla folded with refried beans, mantequilla cream, queso seco, and avocado; the structural national breakfast and street food), the plato tipico (the national plate with grilled meat, refried beans, fried plantain, avocado, queso seco, and rice), the carne asada with chimol salsa, the sopa de mondongo (the tripe and vegetable soup), the tamales hondurenos (the masa wrapped in plantain leaves), the rosquillas (the corn ring biscuits, the structural snack), the horchata (the rice cinnamon drink), the cafe hondureno (Honduras is the seventh largest coffee producer in the world by volume, with the SHG strictly high grown Arabica grade among the most respected in Central America), and the Imperial and Salva Vida beers. The Honduran beef is among the most respected in Central America. For longer reads, the best food cities ranking places Tegucigalpa in the global top 200 for breakfast and street food. Nightlife sits at a 4.6 rating, structurally limited by the safety baseline, anchored by the Marriott Hotel and the Real InterContinental Hotel bars, the Lomas del Guijarro restaurant strip, and the gated mall venues (Multiplaza, Mall las Cascadas, Mall Premier).

The cultural calendar runs through the Feria Juniana national fair (mid June), the Independence Day celebrations (September 15, the Central American independence anniversary), the Suyapa Virgin patron saint celebrations (February 3, the structural national religious holiday), and the Semana Morazanica week (the October 21 to 28 national holiday week introduced by Juan Orlando Hernandez). The Museo Nacional de Honduras Villa Roy (in the renovated Manuel Bonilla Theater complex), the Galeria Nacional de Arte (the largest art collection in Honduras), the Museo Histórico de la Republica, the Cathedral of Saint Michael Archangel (the 18th century colonial cathedral on the Parque Central), and the Basilica of Suyapa (the national patron saint shrine, 8 kilometers from Tegucigalpa) anchor the cultural ecosystem. The Picacho mountain on the northern edge of the city carries a 30 meter Cristo Picacho monument and the Tegucigalpa Zoo and Parque Naciones Unidas El Picacho.

Keep going.