All information offered is based on data from March 2020.
General Characteristics
Official name: Republic of Panama
Limits: country located at the extreme (southeast) of the Central American Isthmus, seven degrees north of Ecuador. It limits to the North with the Atlantic (Caribbean Sea), to the South with the Pacific, to the East with Colombia and to the West with Costa Rica
Superficies: 75517 Km2.
Capital: Panama City.
Population: 4.17 million inhabitants
Other cities: At the Atlantic end of the Canal next to the city of Colón (220,000 inhabitants) is an important commercial center (Cristóbal) and the Free Zone. Also worth noting is the city of David, capital of Chiriquí, a province bordering Costa Rica, with some 150,000 inhabitants.
Languages: Spanish (official language). Much of the population is fluent in English.
Religion: the National Constitution establishes that “the profession of all religions is free, as well as the exercise of all cults, with no other limitation than respect for Christian morality and public order.” The majority religion is Catholic, it constitutes the religion of 80% of the population.
Currency: the currency of circulation is the United States dollar, although for nominal purposes the official currency is the Balboa, which has parity with the dollar.
Form of State: Presidential Democracy. President elected by general elections every 5 years appointed by his cabinet.
Administrative division: Panama is divided into ten provinces (Panama, Colón, Bocas del Toro, Chiriquí, Darién, Veraguas, Los Santos, Coclé, Herrera and Panama Oeste) and five indigenous regions (Guna Yala, Emberá-Wounaan, Ngöbe-Buglé, Guna de Wargandí and Guna de Madungandí).
Geography
Panama is a tropical country, in some areas with a jungle character, although there are mountain ranges of important relief (Volcán Barú or Chiriquí, 3,475 m .; Cerro Pando, 2,470; Cerro Santiago 2,830 m.). It has 1,520 islands, highlighting the archipelagos of San Blas and Bocas del Toro (Caribbean) and Las Perlas (Pacific). On the eastern border, the Darien jungle acts as a natural border between Panama and Colombia.
Social indicators
GDP per capita: 15,575 MUSD in 2018
Population density: 55 inhabitants / km2
Birth rate: 17.6 per thousand inhabitants
Mortality rate: 5.04 per thousand inhabitants
Population growth rate: 1.7%
Life expectancy: 85 years (women), 72 years (men)
Literacy rate: 99.1%
Minimum wage: $ 584 / month average
GINI coefficient: 49.9% (15th most unequal country in the world)
Unemployment rate: 7.1%
CPI: 1.3% (2019)
Percentage of foreigners over total population: 4.45%