Is Honduras Safe for Expats 2026 — Homicide Data, Advisories and Where Risk Sits
GUIDES · HONDURAS
Key Facts
- —What it is A country whose published safety numbers vary far more by department than by year.
- —Who it’s for Foreigners weighing a move, a business or a retirement anywhere in Honduras.
- —What it costs Little in fees, but real money in guarded housing, booked transport and daytime travel.
- —Why it matters Your department, your commute and your business profile decide most of your actual risk.
- —The catch Falling homicide numbers sit beside rising road deaths and badly under-reported extortion.
Ask is Honduras safe for expats and the published data answers department by department, not with a single national verdict.
Is Honduras safe for expats in 2026? Honduras recorded 2,633 homicides in 2025, a national rate of 26.2 per 100,000 people.
Is Honduras Safe for Expats, and What the Homicide Data Shows
The National Violence Observatory at the National Autonomous University of Honduras publishes the country’s homicide count. Its bulletin for 2025, presented on 12 August 2026, recorded 2,633 homicides and a rate of 26.2 per 100,000.
That was 57 fewer killings than in 2024, when the same source counted 2,690 homicides and a rate of 27.2. Across 2022 to 2025 the national rate fell by 12 points, from 38.2 to 26.2.
The longer view matters more than any single year. Honduras peaked at 86.5 homicides per 100,000 in 2011, so the rate now sits below a third of that.
The Observatory still calls the level epidemic. It notes that Honduras records about three times the world average of 8.8 per 100,000 used by the World Health Organization.
Preliminary figures for the first half of 2026 point the same way. The Observatory counted 1,236 homicides in those six months and projected an annual rate of 24.6.
One caution belongs with every Honduran crime number. The police revised their own 2025 count upward by 289 cases between May and July 2026, without publishing an explanation.
Where the Risk Actually Sits Inside the Country
The national rate hides very large differences. In 2025 nine of the eighteen departments sat above it, and departmental rates ran from 11.4 to 49.6 per 100,000.
Colón led at 49.6, followed by Olancho at 40.9, Yoro at 39.1, Copán at 37.9 and Atlántida at 33.3. The Observatory describes these as persistent territorial patterns.
The two big urban departments sat below the national rate. Cortés, which contains San Pedro Sula, recorded 18.4 per 100,000, and Francisco Morazán, which contains Tegucigalpa, recorded 21.6.
Counts and rates tell different stories. Francisco Morazán still had the most victims, 388, and Cortés 359, because those two departments hold most of the population.
Departmental capitals can be worse than their departments. Trujillo reached 64.1 per 100,000 in 2025, Yoro 51.5, Juticalpa 47.0 and La Ceiba 35.0.
The lowest rates were Gracias a Dios at 11.4, then Valle and La Paz at 16.9 and El Paraíso at 17.1. For expats, a low rate in Honduras is not the same as a safe neighborhood.
Is Honduras safe for expats in the Bay Islands? The department recorded 21 homicides in 2025, a rate of 24.9 among about 84,000 residents.
A year earlier the same islands recorded 37 homicides and a rate of 44.9, above the national figure. With so few people, a handful of cases moves the rate sharply.
How Honduras Compares With Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica
InSight Crime published its 2025 homicide round-up on 11 March 2026. It listed Honduras at 23.2 per 100,000, Guatemala at 17.4 and Costa Rica at 16.8.
El Salvador appeared at 1.3 per 100,000, or 82 murders. InSight Crime notes that the Salvadoran government uses a much narrower definition of homicide than other countries.
The Honduran figure in that table differs from the Observatory’s own. InSight Crime used 23.2, while the university bulletin published 26.2 for the same year.
Treat cross-border rankings as approximate. For expats, no Central American country is uniformly safe, and Honduras is no exception.
What the US, UK and Canadian Advisories Said in September 2026
The United States State Department keeps Honduras at Level 3, Reconsider Travel, in an advisory dated 25 August 2026. It lists crime and terrorism as the reasons.
Gracias a Dios department sits at Level 4, Do Not Travel, inside that same advisory. It is the remote eastern department on the border with Nicaragua.
The United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office takes a lighter line. Its travel advice, updated on 29 July 2026, advises against travel to no part of the country.
Canada sits between the two. Its advice tells visitors to exercise a high degree of caution in Honduras because of crime.
Canada also advises against non-essential travel to a named list. It includes Gracias a Dios, Olancho, Yoro, Colón outside Trujillo, and parts of Cortés and Francisco Morazán.
The three governments do not use the same scale, the same regions or the same update cycle. Read each page on the day you decide, because levels change without notice.
Advisories are written for visitors, not for residents. Expats in Honduras carry a longer exposure than a two-week traveler, so safe routines matter more.
Extortion and Who It Actually Targets
Extortion shapes daily life for many Honduran households and small businesses. Expats rarely see it in the homicide statistics that shape how safe Honduras looks.
Recorded complaints have collapsed. Reported extortion cases fell from 1,819 in 2022 to 307 in 2025, an 83 percent drop, El Heraldo reported in July 2026.
Researchers read that fall as fear rather than relief. The Association for a More Just Society puts household victimization near 10.6 percent, or more than 270,000 homes.
The national human rights commission tracked who is targeted. Its July 2026 findings named shopkeepers, bus and taxi drivers, mechanics, teachers, lawyers and property owners.
Eight in ten extortion-driven displacements came from Francisco Morazán and Cortés. Those are the two departments with the heaviest urban economic activity.
For a foreigner the practical line is visibility. Running a business, employing staff or collecting rent raises your profile far more than simply living in the country.
Roads and Night Driving, the Risk Newcomers Underrate
Road deaths are the second leading cause of violent death in Honduras. The Observatory counted 2,029 in 2025, a rate of 20.2 per 100,000, up 7.6 percent on 2024.
That rate now sits close to the homicide rate, and it rose while homicide fell. Motorcycle riders made up 43.3 percent of the victims and pedestrians 24.2 percent.
Cortés recorded the most road deaths in 2025 with 408, followed by Francisco Morazán with 365. Comayagua and Yoro came next.
Canada’s advice tells drivers to avoid road travel at night, and calls road conditions poor throughout the country. For expats, a safe road in Honduras is as much about lighting as about crime.
Poor lighting, weak signage, potholes and sudden flooding all make night driving harder. Travelling between cities by day, with a driver you know, removes much of the exposure.
Everyday Crime and the Routines Residents Use
Is Honduras safe for expats in ordinary daily life? Most days the question is about locks, taxis and phones rather than about violence.
The police recorded 21,213 property-crime complaints in 2025. Those included 1,994 mobile phone thefts and 2,249 household burglaries.
One category moved the other way. Vehicle robbery complaints rose from 124 in 2024 to 896 in 2025, an increase of 622.6 percent.
The Observatory warns against reading the overall drop as good news. Total complaints fell 49.3 percent in a year, which it links to weak confidence in reporting.
Canada’s page describes the Bay Islands as generally safe, with lower violent crime and occasional petty theft. It notes that Roatán and Utila both have tourist police.
The routines residents describe are consistent and unglamorous. Book transport rather than hailing street taxis, keep valuables out of sight, and use bank ATMs indoors.
Emergency services answer on 911. Knowing that number, and your address in Spanish, matters more to expats in Honduras than any safe national average.
The State of Exception Ended, and Storms Are a Separate Risk
Honduras lived under a state of exception from 6 December 2022 until 26 January 2026. It was extended about 25 times and suspended certain constitutional guarantees in defined areas.
It lapsed as the new government took office, and no equivalent measure replaced it. The security ministry floated a narrower version for about 30 priority municipalities in September 2026.
That proposal was not in force as of 23 September 2026. It would still need review by the national defense and security council, and then action by Congress.
The homicide rate did fall while the measure ran. Whether it made Honduras safe for expats or anyone else is not established by any published evaluation.
Weather is the risk that crime statistics never capture. Hurricanes Eta and Iota struck within two weeks in November 2020 and affected more than 4.5 million people.
The World Bank put damages and losses at US$1.9 billion, with 99 deaths and over a million people evacuated. On the Ulúa river, water rose close to a metre above its 1998 peak.
The Atlantic season runs to 30 November, and NOAA’s 6 August 2026 update gave a 75 percent chance of below-normal activity. An outlook is not a forecast that any storm will hit.
Flooding does not wait for a hurricane. On 22 September 2026 the civil protection agency placed the capital district under a yellow alert and eight departments under green alerts.
Connected Coverage
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What Is Not Known
Honduras publishes no municipal crime series that would let anyone rank neighborhoods on a comparable basis. Department and departmental-capital rates are the finest official grain available.
The police and the university Observatory do not always agree. The police added 289 homicides to their 2025 record between May and July 2026 without explaining the revision.
True extortion levels are unknown. Recorded complaints fell 83 percent between 2022 and 2025, while survey work puts victimization near one household in ten.
No official evaluation has been published on what the state of exception changed. The homicide rate fell while it ran, but cause has not been established.
Sources: Homicide, road-death and crime-complaint figures come from the National Violence Observatory at the National Autonomous University of Honduras; advisory levels from the United States State Department, the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Government of Canada; regional comparisons from InSight Crime; storm figures from the World Bank and NOAA.
- iudpas.unah.edu.hn
- iudpas.unah.edu.hn
- travel.state.gov
- gov.uk
- travel.gc.ca
- insightcrime.org
- cpc.ncep.noaa.gov
- worldbank.org
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Honduras safe for expats in 2026?
It depends on where you live. Honduras recorded 2,633 homicides in 2025, a national rate of 26.2 per 100,000, but departmental rates ran from 11.4 to 49.6. The United States keeps the country at Level 3, while the United Kingdom advises against travel to no part of it.
Which parts of Honduras have the lowest homicide rates?
In 2025 the lowest departmental rates were Gracias a Dios at 11.4, then Valle and La Paz at 16.9 and El Paraíso at 17.1. Cortés, which contains San Pedro Sula, recorded 18.4. A low rate is not the same as low risk, because Canada advises against non-essential travel to several of those areas.
Are the Bay Islands safer than mainland Honduras?
Canada’s advice describes the Bay Islands as generally safe, with lower violent crime and occasional petty theft, and notes tourist police on Roatán and Utila. The department’s own homicide rate was 24.9 per 100,000 in 2025, just below the national 26.2. A year earlier it was 44.9, above the national figure, because a few cases move the rate on a small population.
Should I avoid driving at night in Honduras?
Canada’s travel advice tells drivers to avoid road travel at night and calls road conditions poor throughout the country. Road deaths reached 2,029 in 2025, a rate of 20.2 per 100,000, and that rate rose while homicide fell. Motorcycle riders were 43.3 percent of those victims.
Who does gang extortion in Honduras target?
The national human rights commission named shopkeepers, bus and taxi drivers, mechanics, teachers, lawyers and property owners in its July 2026 findings. Eight in ten extortion-driven displacements came from Francisco Morazán and Cortés. Running a business or collecting rent raises a foreigner’s profile more than simply living in the country.
Is the state of exception still in force in Honduras?
No. It ran from 6 December 2022 to 26 January 2026 and then lapsed. A narrower version covering about 30 priority municipalities was proposed in September 2026. It was not in force as of 23 September 2026.
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