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This article summarizes and analyzes the data about demography and rural social organization in El Salvador. Facts are presented about the size and increase of the population, density, racial composition, residence, age, sex, fertility and mortality. The influence of the large coffee estate, the lack of a small farming class, some of the relations of man to the land, the paucity of the cultural heritage, and the debility of local government also are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the interrelationship among community development, land reform and political participation in the Valle de la Esperanza in El Salvador in 1955. The need to link community development programs with such larger development measures as agrarian reform has been stressed by the United Nations many times. One reason is that it has become increasingly obvious that community development programs often do not have the desired success because of unresolved land tenure problems, which, since they are regarded as fundamental by most peasants, keep them from having confidence in and fully participating in government action. Both the sanitation and road-improvement projects appeared to be ideal community development efforts since they corresponded with strongly felt needs of the villagers who had to get water from contaminated wells some distance away and who suffered also when the rainy season made it difficult to reach even the nearest towns. In addition, both projects looked ideal with regard to contributions from the government. For the sanitary drinking water system, several kilometers of pipes were being supplied by the government. The latter was also contributing technical supervision and help in collecting the water at a well in nearby mountains. The villagers only had to contribute manual labor which, because of chronic underemployment in rural El Salvador, was abundantly available.