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]