San Salvador Department

San Salvador Department contains the national capital and approximately one-third of El Salvador's population within its small territory—extreme metropolitan primacy that concentrates economic, political, and cultural power. The city and surrounding municipalities generate most formal employment, government services, and commercial activity. This concentration creates the economic gravity that pulls internal migrants from rural departments while straining infrastructure designed for smaller populations.

Remittances—$8.5 billion in 2024, representing 25% of GDP—flow through San Salvador's banking system to recipients throughout the country. The department processes these transfers while capturing service fees that financial intermediation generates. President Bukele's bitcoin experiment (2021-present) attempted to reduce transfer costs, though actual usage declined from initial adoption as practical limitations emerged. The December 2024 IMF agreement scaled back mandatory bitcoin acceptance.

Manufacturing, particularly textiles and apparel, concentrates in free trade zones around the metropolitan area. These maquiladora operations provide formal employment at wages above agricultural alternatives but below levels that reduce emigration incentive. The department's economic dominance creates the pull factors that other departments experience as population loss—a pattern that reinforces rather than resolves spatial inequality.