Central America is a thin strip of land between Mexico and Colombia. It holds seven small countries: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. The Pacific Ocean lies on one side, the Caribbean Sea on the other. Here you can find rainforests, hot volcanoes, coral reefs, and the busy Panama Canal—all within less than one percent of Earth’s land. Spanish is spoken in most places; Belize uses English, and many people also speak Indigenous or Creole languages. Coffee, bananas, tourism, and shipping earn much of the region’s money, and visitors come to see Maya ruins, cloud forests, and long tropical beaches.
Central America countries
