A report released Thursday says Honduras, with a population of about 8 million, is estimated to soon break the world murder record, putting it ahead of both Iraq and Afghanistan. With an estimated murder rate of 86 per 100,000 inhabitants, Honduras is leaps ahead of other Latin American countries like Brazil and Venezuela, which are known for their high murder rates. Between January and June of this year, Honduras’ violence resulted in 3,587 deaths compared to the 2,929 deaths in the same period last year.

The study, by the Violence Observatory at the National Autonomous University of Honduras, stated that in 2010, the small Central American country has an average of 20 violence-related deaths a day.
Four of the five countries with the highest murder rates in the world are in Latin America – Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, and Mexico.
Central America is fairing far worse than South America it terms of violence however, as homicide rates in South America dropped, due in large part to the continents of economic growth.