• 14 departments

El Salvador Map Quiz

Tap or click the department the question names, from the western corner to the Gulf of Fonseca.

El Salvador Map Quiz

Name Date

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
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Write the name of each numbered department.Answer key

  1. Ahuachapán
  2. Santa Ana
  3. Sonsonate
  4. Chalatenango
  5. La Libertad
  6. San Salvador
  7. Cuscatlán
  8. La Paz
  9. Cabañas
  10. San Vicente
  11. Usulután
  12. San Miguel
  13. Morazán
  14. La Unión

Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2. Licence: public domain.

Each department is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a department is answered.

Next step On paper: the blank map of El SalvadorNext country: the states of Mexico

All 14 departments on the diagram

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  1. Ahuachapán Capital: Ahuachapán. Split from Santa Ana in 1869.
  2. Santa Ana Capital: Santa Ana. Split from Sonsonate in 1855.
  3. Sonsonate Capital: Sonsonate. One of the first four departments of 1824.
  4. Chalatenango Capital: Chalatenango. Split from Cuscatlán in 1855.
  5. La Libertad Capital: Santa Tecla. Split from San Salvador in 1865.
  6. San Salvador Capital: San Salvador, also the national capital. Most people of the 14.
  7. Cuscatlán Capital: Cojutepeque. The smallest department by area.
  8. La Paz Capital: Zacatecoluca. First made a department in 1839.
  9. Cabañas Capital: Sensuntepeque. Fewest people of the 14 in the 2024 census.
  10. San Vicente Capital: San Vicente. One of the first four departments of 1824.
  11. Usulután Capital: Usulután. Split from San Miguel in 1865.
  12. San Miguel Capital: San Miguel. One of the first four departments of 1824.
  13. Morazán Capital: San Francisco Gotera. Called Gotera until 1887.
  14. La Unión Capital: La Unión. The easternmost department, on the Gulf of Fonseca.

How this list was compiled: The 14 departments, their census numbers 01 to 14 (the order of this list) and the populations behind 'most people' (San Salvador, 1,563,371) and 'fewest people' (Cabañas, 143,049): VII Censo de Población y VI de Vivienda 2024, Banco Central de Reserva de El Salvador, table TAB_POB_1, https://censo2024.bcr.gob.sv/wp-content/uploads/tablas-geoportal/2025/TAB_POB_1.pdf, read on 2026-10-08 in the copy kept at https://web.archive.org/web/20250405065139/https://censo2024.bcr.gob.sv/wp-content/uploads/tablas-geoportal/2025/TAB_POB_1.pdf. Names and codes: ISO 3166-2:SV as printed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2:SV (14 departments), read 2026-10-08. Capitals, Cuscatlán the smallest by area, 'nine of the 14 are named after their capitals' and every date in a detail line (the four departments of 1824; La Paz 1839; Santa Ana and Chalatenango 1855; La Libertad, Usulután and La Unión 1865; Ahuachapán 1869; Gotera renamed Morazán in 1887): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Departments_of_El_Salvador (table and History), read 2026-10-08. La Unión the easternmost department: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Uni%C3%B3n_Department; the Gulf of Fonseca, shared by El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Fonseca; both read 2026-10-08. No department is called the largest: the article's table and the drawn areas disagree. The map was drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, a public-domain map dataset; where a part lies on the map (a coast, a corner, a neighbor) was read from that drawing. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_1_states_provinces (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_1_states_provinces.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_0_countries (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_0_countries.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 13.7°N 88.9°W. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)

How it works

This El Salvador map quiz asks for the 14 departments on a blank map. The national census numbers them west to east, from Ahuachapán to La Unión. Guatemala and Honduras are drawn as plain land and are never asked.

Read the full guide

Two rounds of seven

Each round asks seven departments from all over the country, west and east alike: Ahuachapán at the western corner in one, La Unión, the department on the Gulf of Fonseca, in the other.

Nine capitals share the name

The five that do not: Cabañas (Sensuntepeque), Cuscatlán (Cojutepeque), La Libertad (Santa Tecla), La Paz (Zacatecoluca) and Morazán (San Francisco Gotera). Show me the labels first writes the names on the map; tap a department there for its capital.

  • Three names start with the word San, and they run west to east: San Salvador in the middle, then San Vicente, then San Miguel.
  • Santa Ana and Chalatenango, the two big shapes of the north, each split off a neighbor in 1855: Santa Ana from Sonsonate, Chalatenango from Cuscatlán.

Questions and answers

How many departments does El Salvador have?

Fourteen. The 2024 census numbers them 01 to 14, from Ahuachapán in the west to La Unión in the east.

Which department is San Salvador in?

The department of San Salvador, the narrow shape in the middle of the map. The city is the capital of the country and of the department, which has the most people of the 14 in the 2024 census.

What is the smallest department of El Salvador?

Cuscatlán, in the middle of the country, is the smallest by area. Cabañas, the next department to the east, has the fewest people in the 2024 census.

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