Panama
Name
| Official name | Republic of Panama — República de Panamá |
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| Former names | The Department of Panama of Colombia (1821–1903) and the sovereign State of Panama of 1855–86; the Real Audiencia of Panamá and the Kingdom of Tierra Firme of the Spanish (1538–1821); Castilla de Oro; the Isthmus of Darién; the Republic of the Isthmus of the first days of 1903 |
| Demonym | Panamanian |
| Meaning of the name | Panamá — "an abundance of fish" in the Cueva language by the usual reading, "many butterflies," or the name of a tree, the Sterculia of the arms; the village of 1519 that named the city, the isthmus and the state; the hat from Ecuador that took the name from the Canal's workers |
| Motto | "Pro Mundi Beneficio" — for the benefit of the world; on the arms, the Canal's promise |
Quick facts
| Capital | Panama City — Ciudad de Panamá — the city of 15 August 1519 and 1673, the capital of the republic since 1903; about 1 million in the district, 2 million in the metropolis, half the country |
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| Largest cities | Panama City; San Miguelito, about 350,000, the district of the hills beside it; Tocumen and Las Cumbres of the airport's sprawl; La Chorrera and Arraiján of Panamá Oeste across the Canal; Colón, about 80,000 in the city and 250,000 in the province, the Atlantic port and the Free Zone; David of Chiriquí; Santiago of Veraguas; Chitré of the Azuero; Penonomé; Changuinola and Bocas del Toro of the bananas |
| Official language | Spanish — the Panamanian of the Caribbean accent; English the second language of 14%, the "Guari-Guari" Creole of the Afro-Antillean Colón and the English of the banks and the Canal; the seven Indigenous languages of the comarcas — Ngäbere, Guna, Emberá, Wounaan, Buglere, Naso and Bri Bri — recognized by the law of 2010; Hakka and Cantonese of the Chinese; the Arabic and Hebrew of the merchants |
| Currency | Balboa — PAB, B/.; 100 centésimos; since 1904 at par with the U.S. dollar, in coins only; the U.S. dollar the paper money and the legal tender since the agreement of 20 June 1904 |
| Time zone | Eastern Standard Time, UTC−5; no summer time |
| Calling code | +507 |
| Internet domain | .pa |
| ISO 3166 codes | PA · PAN · 591 |
| Vehicle registration code | PA |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 120 V, 60 Hz; plug types A and B |
| Independence | 28 November 1821, from Spain, and the union with Gran Colombia by the choice of the isthmus; 3 November 1903, from Colombia, the separation of the junta of Amador Guerrero with the American warships offshore, recognized by the United States on 6 November; the Canal handed over 31 December 1999 |
| National days | 3 November, Separation Day; 4 November, Flag Day; 5 November, Colón Day, for the city that stopped the Colombian troops; 10 November, the First Cry of Independence of Los Santos of 1821; 28 November, Independence from Spain; 9 January, Martyrs' Day, for the students of 1964; 20 December, the Day of National Mourning for the invasion of 1989; the Carnival of the four days before Lent, the country's festival; 1 May; Good Friday; 8 December, Mother's Day; 25 December; 1 January |
| Constitution | 11 October 1972 — the Political Constitution of the Republic of Panama, the fourth, written under General Torrijos and amended in 1978, in 1983 to end the general's special powers, in 1994 to abolish the army by the article that forbids one, and in 2004 to shorten the succession: a presidential republic of the president elected for five years without immediate re-election, the vice president on the ticket, the National Assembly of 71, the Supreme Court of nine, the ten provinces and the comarcas, the Canal Authority in its own title since 1994; the Constitutions of 1904, 1941 and 1946 before; the constituent assembly Mulino promised and dropped |
| Population | 4,064,780 at the census of 2023; about 4.5 million (2026 est.) |
| Area | 75,420 km² (29,120 sq mi) — land 74,340 km², water 1,080 km²; the isthmus 80 km wide at the Canal and 190 at the widest |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | A field quartered into four rectangles — white with a blue five-pointed star at the upper hoist, red at the upper fly, blue at the lower hoist and white with a red star at the lower fly — the blue of the Conservative party and the red of the Liberals of the Colombian politics the new state inherited, the white the peace between them, the blue star the purity and honesty of the civic life and the red star the authority and the law; sewn by María de la Ossa de Amador, the wife of the first president, in the days before the separation of November 1903 to the design of their son Manuel Amador, and adopted by the law of 4 June 1904; the day of its making, 4 November, the Flag Day.Flag of Panama |
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| Coat of arms | A shield of five fields — the isthmus between its two seas under the sun and the moon at the hour of the separation, a sword and a rifle for the wars renounced, a shovel and a pick for the work of the Canal, a cornucopia of the wealth and a winged wheel of progress — under a harpy eagle with the scroll "Pro Mundi Beneficio" and an arc of ten stars for the provinces, nine until Panamá Oeste of 2014; designed by Nicanor Villalaz and adopted 1904, fixed 1941 |
| National anthem | "Himno Istmeño" ("Isthmian Hymn") — the music of the Spanish composer Santos Jorge of 1897 for a school and the words of Jerónimo de la Ossa of 1903, "we achieved at last the victory in the happy field of union"; the anthem in fact from 1906 and in law from the Constitution of 1941, "Alcanzamos por fin la victoria" |
| National motto | "Pro Mundi Beneficio" |
| National colors | Red, white and blue |
| National animal | The harpy eagle, Harpia harpyja, the most powerful eagle of the Americas of the Darién forest, the national bird by the law of 2002 and the bird of the arms; the golden frog of El Valle, the amphibian gone from the wild and bred in the zoos, the symbol of the luck; the Panamanian white-faced capuchin, the sloth of the canal banks, the jaguar of the Darién; widely cited |
| National flower | The Holy Ghost orchid — the flor del Espíritu Santo, Peristeria elata, the white orchid whose center holds a dove, declared 1980; the Panama tree, Sterculia apetala, the national tree of 1969; the pintao hat of the Azuero, the national dress of the pollera and the montuno; widely cited |
| National dish | Sancocho — the chicken soup with the ñame yam, the culantro and the corn, the dish of the countryside and the hangover, eaten with rice; the arroz con pollo of the parties, the ropa vieja, the ceviche of corvina of the fish market, the carimañolas of the yuca, the hojaldres of the breakfast, the tamales of the Christmas; the patacones; the raspao of the ice; the seco of the sugarcane and the Balboa beer; the Geisha coffee of Boquete, the most expensive in the world; widely cited |
| National sport | Baseball, the game of the Canal Zone and the Caribbean, the national sport of Rod Carew, the seven batting titles, and Mariano Rivera, the first unanimous inductee of the Hall of Fame in 2019, the World Baseball Classic of 2023; boxing, the thirty world champions of Roberto Durán, "Manos de Piedra," Ismael Laguna and Eusebio Pedroza, the most per head of any country; football, the World Cups of 2018 and 2026, the Gold Cup finals of 2005, 2013 and 2023; the horse racing of Laffit Pincay Jr. and the jockeys; Irving Saladino's long jump gold of Beijing 2008, the country's first; the surfing of Santa Catalina; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag by the law of 1904 and the Constitution; the arms by the law of 1904 and 1941; the anthem by the Constitution of 1941; the eagle by the law of 2002, the orchid by the law of 1980 and the tree by the law of 1969; the dishes and sports widely cited |
Geography
| Location | Central America's last country and South America's first — the isthmus between the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific to the south, Costa Rica to the west and Colombia to the east, the S of the map that puts the Pacific end of the Canal east of the Atlantic end; the Pearl Islands, Coiba and Taboga of the Pacific, the San Blas of the Guna and the Bocas del Toro of the Caribbean |
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| Land borders | 687 km (427 mi) with two neighbors — Costa Rica 348 along the Sixaola and the Talamanca, the Paso Canoas crossing of the trucks and the Bocas banana country; Colombia 339 through the Darién, the jungle border without a road, the Darién Gap of 106 km of the Pan-American Highway never built, the route of half a million migrants in 2023 and closed by Mulino in 2024, the Colombian guerrillas and the Gulf Clan of the smuggling |
| Coastline | 2,490 km (1,547 mi) — the Caribbean of 1,290 km with the Bocas del Toro archipelago, the Portobelo and San Lorenzo forts, Colón and the Canal's Atlantic mouth, the 365 islands of Guna Yala; the Pacific of 1,700 km with the Gulf of Panama, the Bay of Panama and its city, the Pearl Islands, the Azuero beaches, Coiba and the Gulf of Chiriquí, the tides of 6 m against the Caribbean's half a meter; the two coasts 80 km apart |
| Highest point | Volcán Barú, 3,475 m (11,401 ft), in Chiriquí, the dormant volcano of the Talamanca |
| Lowest point | The Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, 0 m |
| Mean elevation | 360 m (1,181 ft) |
| Rivers | The Chagres, 190 km, the river of the Canal, dammed at Gatún in 1913 and at Madden in 1935 to make the lakes that lift the ships and water the capital, the most valuable river of the country; the Tuira of the Darién, 230 km, the longest, and the Chucunaque, the rivers of the Emberá's canoes; the Bayano of the dam of 1976; the Chiriquí Viejo and the Chiriquí of the west; the Santa María of Veraguas; the Río Indio of the reservoir of the plans; the 500 rivers of the isthmus, short and fast to both seas |
| Lakes | Gatún, 425 km², the artificial lake of 1913 that is the Canal's middle, the largest man-made lake in the world when it was made, the flooded forest of the Barro Colorado island of the Smithsonian; Alajuela, the Madden lake of 1935 of the capital's water; Bayano, 350 km², the largest reservoir, of the dam of 1976 in the Guna and Emberá country; the Río Indio reservoir approved in 2025, US$1.6 billion and 2,000 people moved, for the Canal's water of 2032; the crater lake of El Valle |
| Terrain | The two cordilleras — the Cordillera Central of the west from the Talamanca of Barú to the Canal, the volcanic highlands of Chiriquí and Veraguas of the coffee, and the Serranía del Darién and the San Blas of the east along the Caribbean; the lowlands of the two coasts, the Azuero peninsula of the cattle and the folklore, the plains of Coclé and Los Santos; the Canal's cut of 82 km through the lowest saddle of the continent at 26 m; the Darién of 5,000 km² of rain forest; the mangroves of the Gulf of Panama; the 1,600 islands |
| Climate | Tropical — hot and humid all year at 27°C on the coasts, the Caribbean wet at 3,000 to 5,000 mm and the Pacific with a dry season of December to April, the "summer" of the Panamanians; the highlands of Boquete and El Valle cool at 20°C, the "eternal spring"; the El Niño droughts of 2015–16 and 2023–24 that emptied the lakes of the Canal; the hurricanes that pass to the north, Otto of November 2016 the only one on record to touch the country |
| Natural hazards | Floods and landslides of the rains — the floods of December 2010 that shut the Canal for the first time since 1989 and the "Purísima" storms, the floods of November 2022 and 2024 of Chiriquí and Bocas; the droughts of the Canal, the transits cut from 36 to 22 a day in 2023–24; the earthquakes of the Caribbean plate, the Bocas del Toro earthquake of 1991 with 23 dead; the volcanoes of Barú and El Valle dormant; the Darién of the migrants' deaths, the rivers that took hundreds; the boats of the Guna coast, the two of 10 February 2026 with three dead; the 2016 Otto |
| Natural resources | The isthmus itself, the Canal and the ports of the world's trade; copper of the Cobre Panamá mine of Donoso in Colón, 1.5% of the world's output when it ran and one of the largest open pits on earth, closed since November 2023; gold of the Veraguas and the Darién of the artisanal; the mahogany and the hardwoods of the Darién; the hydropower of the Chiriquí and the Bayano; the shrimp of the farms, the tuna of the Pacific; the bananas of Bocas and the coffee of Chiriquí; the water of the Chagres; the forests of 62% of the land |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 30%, the cattle pastures of the Azuero and the Chiriquí, the bananas, the sugar and the rice; forest about 62%, the Darién and the Caribbean slope, the mangroves; the Canal watershed protected |
| National parks | 15 national parks on about a quarter of the land — Darién of 1980, 5,790 km², the largest of Central America, the harpy eagles and the Emberá and Guna villages; La Amistad of the Talamanca shared with Costa Rica; Coiba of the island prison of 1919–2004 become the marine park; Volcán Barú; Soberanía on the Canal's bank, the Pipeline Road of the 500 birds; Chagres of the capital's water; Portobelo; Camino de Cruces; the Metropolitan park in the city; Isla Bastimentos of Bocas; Sarigua of the desert of the Azuero; the Cerro Hoya; the Barro Colorado island of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute since 1923, the most studied forest on earth |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 5 — the Fortifications on the Caribbean Side of Panama: Portobelo–San Lorenzo (1980), the forts of the silver fleets sacked by Morgan and Vernon, on the danger list since 2012; Darién National Park (1981); the Talamanca Range–La Amistad Reserves (1983, shared with Costa Rica); the Archaeological Site of Panamá Viejo and Historic District of Panamá (1997, extended 2003), the ruins of 1519 and the Casco Antiguo of 1673; Coiba National Park and its Special Zone of Marine Protection (2005); the Congo culture of the Afro-colonial coast (2018), the pintao hat (2017) and the Corpus Christi dances of La Villa de Los Santos (2021) on the intangible list |
| Administrative divisions | 10 provinces — Bocas del Toro, Chiriquí, Coclé, Colón, Darién, Herrera, Los Santos, Panamá, Panamá Oeste of 2014 and Veraguas — under governors named by the president; 4 Indigenous comarcas of provincial rank — Guna Yala of the San Blas islands since 1938, Emberá-Wounaan of the Darién since 1983, Ngäbe-Buglé of the west since 1997, the largest with 200,000 people, and Naso Tjër Di of Bocas since 2020, the newest — and 2 comarcas of the Guna within the provinces, Madugandí and Wargandí; 82 districts with elected mayors and 700 corregimientos with their representatives |
People
| Population | 4,064,780 (census of 2023); about 4.5 million (2026 est.) |
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| Population density | About 60 per km² (155 per sq mi) — the capital's province at 1,000, the Darién at 5 |
| Population growth | About 1.4% a year — the immigration of the Venezuelans, Colombians and Nicaraguans of the 2010s and the migrants of the Darién who did not stay |
| Median age | About 31 years |
| Life expectancy | About 79 years — among the highest of Latin America |
| Fertility rate | About 2.2 births per woman |
| Urban population | About 70% |
| Adult literacy | About 96% |
| Ethnic groups | Mestizo about 65%, the mixed majority of the interior and the cities; Indigenous 17.2%, 698,114 by the census of 2023 — the Ngäbe of the western mountains the largest at 300,000, the Guna of the San Blas islands and their molas, the Emberá and Wounaan of the Darién rivers, the Buglé, the Naso, the Bri Bri, the Bokota; Afro-Panamanian about 9% by the older counts and 31% by the self-identification of 2023, the Afro-colonial of the Congo culture of Colón and the Pacific and the Afro-Antillean of the Jamaicans and Barbadians who built the railroad and the Canal; white about 7%, the old families of the rabiblancos and the Spanish, Italian and American of the century; Chinese about 4%, the largest community of Central America since the railroad of 1850, the corner stores of every town; the Arabs, the Jews of the commerce, the Hindus, the Greeks; the Venezuelans and Colombians of the 2010s |
| Languages | Spanish by 93% as the mother tongue, the Panamanian of the "chuleta" and the Caribbean speech; English by 14%, the second language of the Canal, the banks and the schools of the elite and the Creole of the West Indians of Colón and Bocas; Ngäbere by 200,000, the largest Indigenous language, Guna by 60,000, Emberá by 30,000, Wounaan, Buglere, Naso, Bri Bri, the seven of the law of 2010; Hakka and Cantonese of the Chinese; the Arabic; the "Guari-Guari" |
| Religion | Roman Catholic about 63% and falling, the church of the Spanish and of the Black Christ of Portobelo, the World Youth Day of January 2019 with the pope; Evangelical about 25% and rising, the Pentecostals and the Baptists of the barrios; none about 8%; the Baha'is of the House of Worship of 1972, the Jews of 15,000 of Panama City, the Muslims of the Arab merchants, the Hindus, the Buddhists of the Chinese; the Guna, Ngäbe and Emberá faiths under the Christian; the Mama Tata of the Ngäbe (the surveys of 2023) |
| Human Development Index | 0.839 (2023 data, 2025 report) — very high; about 57th of 193 |
| The Indigenous and the comarcas | The 700,000 of the seven peoples, 17% of the country and the most of any state of Central America but Guatemala by the share — the comarcas of the semi-autonomous rule since the Guna won theirs by the revolution of 1925, the Tule Republic of ten days that the Americans mediated, the congresses of the caciques, the collective land; the Ngäbe-Buglé of the mountains of the coffee pickers and the banana strikes, the Barro Blanco dam fight of 2015, the roadblocks of 2023 against the mine and of 2025 against the pension law; the Guna of the molas and the 365 islands the sea is taking, the Gardi Sugdub islanders moved to the mainland in June 2024, the first climate relocation of the country; the Emberá of the Darién's canoes and the migrants who passed through; the poverty of the comarcas at 80% against the country's 12% |
| Sport | Baseball — the Carew and Rivera of the Yankees, the Panamanian league of the Chiriquí and Los Santos, the World Baseball Classic of 2023; boxing, the thirty world champions from Panama Al Brown of 1929, the first Latin American, to Durán of four divisions and the "no más" of 1980; football, the Marea Roja of the World Cup of Russia 2018, the first, and of 2026 in North America of 11–23 June, out in the group, the Gold Cup final of 2023, the Copa América quarterfinal of 2024; the athletics of Saladino; the swimming of the Pacific; the surf of Santa Catalina and the Bocas; the horse racing of the Presidente Remón track and the jockeys of Pincay and Bejarano; the Central American Games hosted in 2010 and the 2026 of Guatemala |
| Diaspora | About 250,000 Panamanians abroad — the United States of 200,000, the New York and Miami of the Canal Zone families and the students; Costa Rica; Colombia; the remittances small; the immigrants more than the emigrants, the 200,000 Venezuelans and the Colombians, the "Panama for the Panamanians" of the politics |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary presidential republic under the Constitution of 1972 — the president elected by plurality for five years as head of state and government with no immediate re-election, the vice president on the ticket, the cabinet; the National Assembly of 71; the Supreme Court of nine named by the president for ten years; the Canal Authority of its own title; no army since 1994; the parties of the money and the families and the independents of the reform; "free" by Freedom House and the corruption of the Odebrecht and the Panama Papers |
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| President | José Raúl Mulino (Realizando Metas — RM), since 1 July 2024 — the thirty-eighth president; born 22 October 1959 at Chiriquí, the lawyer of Tulane, the foreign minister of 1993–94 under Endara and the minister of public security of 2009–14 under Martinelli, the builder of the police state's SENAFRONT, the arrested and freed of 2015 in the Martinelli prosecutions; the running mate of Ricardo Martinelli, the president of 2009–14 sentenced to ten years for money laundering in July 2023 and barred from the ballot on 4 March 2024, promoted to the head of the ticket, his candidacy without a running mate upheld by the Supreme Court on 3 May 2024, two days before the vote, and elected 5 May 2024 with 34.2% against Ricardo Lombana's 24.6%, Martín Torrijos's 16% and Rómulo Roux's 11.4%; "the Canal is Panama's and will remain so," his answer of January 2025 to Trump, "Panama moved toward a relationship of respect, restored trust, joint efforts, and friendship," his word of January 2026; the president of the closed Darién, the deportation flights accepted, the pension law, the strikes, the mine's task force and the ports taken back, "not for sale"; no vice president, the office vacant for the term; his term to 1 July 2029 |
| The 2024 election | Held 5 May 2024 for the presidency, the 71 seats of the Assembly, the mayors and the representatives: Mulino 34.2% and 745,000 votes for RM and Alianza in the field of eight; Ricardo Lombana of Otro Camino 24.6%, the anticorruption candidate; Martín Torrijos of the Popular Party 16%, the former president; Rómulo Roux of Cambio Democrático 11.4%; the Panameñista José Blandón and the PRD's José Gabriel Carrizo of the governing party at 5.9%, the PRD's collapse; turnout 77.7%; the Assembly of the independents of Vamos with 20 seats the largest group for the first time, RM 14, the PRD 13 from 35, Cambio Democrático 8, the Panameñistas 8, MOCA and the rest; Martinelli watching from the Nicaraguan embassy where he had taken asylum on 7 February 2024 |
| Parliament | The National Assembly — Asamblea Nacional — of 71 deputies elected for five years by the circuits of the provinces and the comarcas, the president of the Assembly elected each 1 July, Dana Castañeda of RM for the first year and Jorge Herrera of the Panameñistas since 1 July 2025; Vamos 20, RM 14, the PRD 13, CD 8, the Panameñistas 8, MOCA and the independents the rest; the Assembly of the pension law of 18 March 2025 and of the "planilla" of the salaried relatives the reformers fight; the Palacio Justo Arosemena |
| The next election | The general election of 2 May 2029 for the presidency, the Assembly, the mayors and the representatives, all on one day and one ballot; the president barred from succeeding himself |
| The Canal and the Americans | The Panama Canal — the Torrijos–Carter Treaties of 7 September 1977 that gave it to Panama at noon on 31 December 1999 with the Neutrality Treaty that keeps it open to all and lets the United States defend its neutrality; the Panama Canal Authority of the Constitution's title since 1997, the transits of about 13,000 ships a year, 5% of the world's seaborne trade, the tolls of about US$5 billion, the record fiscal 2025 of US$5.7 billion after the drought and the US$2.8 billion paid to the treasury, the expansion of 26 June 2016 for the Neopanamax ships; Trump's "we're taking it back" of the inaugural of 20 January 2025 and the "exorbitant" tolls and "Chinese operation" of his charges, Mulino's "the Canal is Panama's" and the crowds with the flag, the Rubio visit of 2 February 2025, the exit from the Belt and Road of 6 February 2025, the first country to leave, the "free passage" for the U.S. Navy the State Department announced and the Authority denied, the security memorandum of 9 April 2025 signed with Hegseth for the American troops' rotations at the old bases without a base, "an attack on the sovereignty" of the streets' reading; the Río Indio reservoir approved 2025 for the water; "not for sale," the president |
| The ports | The Balboa and Cristóbal container terminals at the two mouths of the Canal, run since 1997 by the Panama Ports Company of Hong Kong's CK Hutchison on a concession renewed in 2021 for 25 years, the "Chinese control" of Washington's charge; the audit ordered by Mulino in January 2025, the suit at the Supreme Court of February, the sale of 4 March 2025 of Hutchison's 43 ports in 23 countries for US$22.8 billion to the consortium of BlackRock and the Aponte family's Terminal Investment Limited of the MSC shipping line, the largest port deal in history, halted by China's antitrust review of 28 March 2025 and the Beijing that "will not approve the sale if China's interests are not protected"; the Supreme Court's ruling of 29 January 2026 that the concession was unconstitutional for the way it was renewed, the terminals taken by the state on 23 February 2026, "the Panamanian state assumes control," the Panama Ports Company's international arbitration, the consortium's move to close the global deal without Panama, the new auction the government plans or the state to run the ports itself; the United States and China at the United Nations over it in August 2025 |
| The mine | Cobre Panamá of First Quantum Minerals of Canada at Donoso on the Caribbean slope of Colón, the US$10 billion open pit opened in 2019 that produced 1.5% of the world's copper, 5% of the country's GDP and 75% of its goods exports — the contract of October 2023 that renewed it for 20 years, the largest protests of the country's history of October and November 2023, the roads blocked for a month and four dead, the Supreme Court's unanimous ruling of 28 November 2023 that the contract was unconstitutional, the mine shut, the moratorium on the mining of the same month, the investment grade lost with it, Fitch in March 2024 and the others after; the company's arbitration suspended in 2025 for the talks; Mulino's task force of 2026 under the commerce minister, the poll of April 2026 with 61% for the reopening, the Chilean experts offered, the plan of July 2026 for a state mining company to partner with First Quantum around the moratorium's ambiguity, the finance minister's "the land and the mineral resources belong to the Republic," the decision promised for the end of 2026, the formal talks for 2027; "reopen without a new concession," the president's hope, "the mine's closure a cause the streets won," the environmentalists' |
| The strikes of 2025 and the Darién | The pension law, Law 462 of 18 March 2025, that raised the contributions and ended the individual accounts' guarantee to save the Social Security fund, "praised by the IMF" and answered by the strike of the construction workers' union SUNTRACS, the teachers and the doctors from April to July 2025, the schools shut for two months, the roads of the Ngäbe blocked, the banana pickers of Bocas del Toro on strike until Chiquita closed its plantations and dismissed 6,500 on 22 May 2025, the state of emergency in Bocas of 20 June 2025 and the arrests, the SUNTRACS leaders jailed and exiled; the Darién Gap of 520,000 migrants in 2023 and 300,000 in 2024, the Venezuelans, the Haitians, the Chinese and the Africans on the way to the United States, closed by Mulino's fences and deportation flights from July 2024 and emptied by the American border's closure of 2025, the flow reversed south by the boats of the Guna coast and the deportees flown to Panama's Darién camps in February 2025 as the "bridge" of Washington's expulsions; Martinelli's fifteen months in the Nicaraguan embassy of Panama City and his flight to the asylum of Colombia on 10 May 2025 |
| Legal system | Civil law of the Spanish and the Colombian codes with the American procedure of the accusatory system of 2011–16 — the Supreme Court of nine magistrates named by the president and confirmed by the Assembly for ten years, the chief justice María Eugenia López, the Electoral Tribunal of the elections, the Comptroller; no death penalty since 1904; the Panama Papers of 3 April 2016 of the Mossack Fonseca firm and the 11.5 million documents of the offshore world, the 28 acquitted in June 2024; the Odebrecht bribes of US$59 million and the Martinelli sons' American prison; the "New Business" case of Martinelli's ten years; the FATF grey list of 2019–23 and the European Union's tax blacklist left; the immunity of the deputies; the corruption of the "planilla"; the Supreme Court's rulings of 2023 on the mine and 2026 on the ports that turned the country |
| Local government | 10 governors named by the president; 82 districts with mayors and municipal councils elected in May 2024 for five years, Mayer Mizrachi of Panama City since 1 July 2024, the mayor of the beach cleanups and the trees; the 700 representatives of the corregimientos, the "honorables" of the neighborhoods; the comarcas of the caciques and the congresses; the Colón of the Free Zone's money and the ruins |
| Defense | None — the army abolished by the constitutional amendment of 1994 after the Defense Forces of Noriega were destroyed by the invasion of 20 December 1989, "Just Cause," of 26,000 American troops with about 500 Panamanians dead by the official count and 3,000 by the others, the barrio of El Chorrillo burned; the Panamanian Public Forces of the National Police of 20,000, the National Border Service SENAFRONT of the Darién and the Colombian border, the National Aeronaval Service of the coasts and the Canal; the Southern Command's exercises and the rotations of the memorandum of 2025 at the old Howard, Rodman and Fort Sherman without a base; the Neutrality Treaty's American right; the United Nations peacekeepers none |
| Foreign policy | The United States of the Canal, the dollar, the invasion and the "we're taking it back," the security memorandum, the deportations and the "Panama is not for sale"; China recognized on 13 June 2017 in place of Taiwan, the Belt and Road of 2017 left in 2025, the ports and the Chinese bridge of the Canal's fourth crossing, the Huawei of the telecoms watched; Colombia of the Darién border and the asylum of Martinelli; Costa Rica of the bananas; the Venezuela of the migrants and the recognized opposition; the Central American integration of SICA and its parliament; the flag of the world's ships; the Pope of 2019; the OAS of the Washington votes |
| United Nations | A founding member of 13 November 1945; the Security Council seats of 1958–59, 1972–73, 1976–77, 1981–82 and 2007–08, the session of March 1973 held at Panama City on the Canal; the peacekeepers few; the UN regional hub of the Ciudad del Saber |
| Other memberships | The Organization of American States (1948); the Central American Integration System (1991) and its parliament; the Pacific Alliance as an observer; the WTO (1997); the Non-Aligned Movement; the Association of Caribbean States; the Belt and Road left 6 February 2025; the OECD's tax forum; the free trade agreements with the United States (2012), the European Union, Canada and the region |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$90 billion (2025, IMF) |
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| GDP per capita | About US$19,000 (2025) — the highest of Central America and the second of Latin America after Uruguay |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$45,000 (2025) — the highest of Latin America |
| GDP growth | About 2.9% in 2024, the year without the mine, about 4% in 2025 and about 4% expected in 2026, "below the pre-pandemic levels in the medium term" without the copper, the 6% of 2027 the business chambers see with it; inflation about 1% on the dollar; unemployment about 9% and the informal half of the workers; the investment grade lost in 2024–25 and the "junk" of the ratings; the poverty of 12% and the Gini among the highest of the region |
| Economy by sector | Services about 80%, the Canal, the ports, the banking, the Free Zone, the airport and the logistics of the "hub of the Americas," the construction of the towers; industry about 15%, the mine gone from it; agriculture about 2.5%, the bananas, the sugar, the coffee, the cattle and the shrimp |
| Currency | Balboa (PAB) and United States dollar (USD) |
| The Canal | The waterway of 82 km from Colón to Balboa, the three sets of locks of 1914 and the Neopanamax locks of 2016 of the US$5.25 billion expansion, the Gatún Lake between, 8 to 10 hours for the transit; about 13,000 transits and 500 million tons a year, the container ships of the Asia–U.S. East Coast trade, the LNG and LPG tankers, the grain and the cruises; the tolls of about US$5 billion, the fiscal year 2025 of US$5.7 billion in revenue and US$2.8 billion to the state, a tenth of the budget; the drought of 2023–24 that cut the daily transits from 36 to 22 and the tolls to the auction of US$4 million for a slot; the Panama Canal Authority's plan of US$8.5 billion over ten years — the Río Indio reservoir, the gas pipeline across the isthmus and the two new port concessions; the 25% of the world's trade between Asia and America |
| Banking and the Free Zone | The International Banking Center of about 60 banks of the dollar and the secrecy since 1970, US$150 billion of assets, the HSBC, the Citi and the Panamanian Banco General and Banistmo, the Panama Papers of 2016 that cost the secrecy and the grey lists that cost the years; the Colón Free Zone of 1948, the largest free port of the Americas and the second of the world after Hong Kong, US$20 billion of re-exports of the Asian goods to Latin America, the 2,500 companies; the ship registry, the largest of the world since 1993 with 8,000 vessels and 240 million tons under the flag of convenience of the 1920s, the sanctions' "shadow fleet" it deflags; the Tocumen hub and the Copa flights; the real estate of the towers and the Trump Ocean Club of 2011 that lost his name in 2018 |
| The copper | The Cobre Panamá mine idle since 28 November 2023 — 350,000 tons of copper a year and 1.5% of the world's when it ran, US$10 billion invested, 7,000 direct jobs and 40,000 in all, 5% of GDP and 75% of the goods exports, the country's largest private investment ever; the First Quantum arbitration of US$20 billion suspended for the talks, the concentrate stranded at the port allowed out in 2025; the task force of 2026 and the state company of the plan, the decision of December 2026 the economy waits for |
| Farming and the bananas | The bananas of Bocas del Toro and Chiriquí, the Chiquita of the United Fruit's Bocas Division of 1899 closed on 22 May 2025 with 6,500 dismissed after the strike, the country's oldest export ended; the coffee of Boquete and Volcán, the Geisha variety sold at US$10,000 a kilogram at the auctions of 2024–25, the most expensive coffee in the world; the sugar of Coclé, the rice, the pineapples of La Chorrera, the melons; the cattle of the Azuero and the Chiriquí; the shrimp and the fish of the Gulf; the food imported by half |
| Energy | Electricity from the hydropower of the Chiriquí, the Bayano and the Fortuna dam for about 60%, the natural gas of the AES Colón plant of 2018 of the imported LNG, the solar and wind of the 2020s, the coal plant of Colón; the Canal's own hydro of Gatún; the electricity interconnection of Central America; the fuel imported; the Canal Authority's gas pipeline across the isthmus of the plan for the LPG that cannot fit the locks |
| Public finances | Public debt about 60% of GDP, US$55 billion, doubled in the pandemic and the mine's loss, the deficit of 7% of 2024 cut by Mulino's austerity toward the 4% of the fiscal rule, the investment grade lost by Fitch on 28 March 2024 and Moody's and S&P after; the budget of about US$30 billion; the pension fund saved by the law of 2025 with the state's US$1 billion a year; the Canal's US$2.8 billion; the taxes of a tenth of GDP, the lowest of the region; the FATF list left in October 2023 |
| Income classification | High income (World Bank) since 2018 |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Tocumen International Airport of Panama City, the "hub of the Americas," about 20 million passengers, the largest of Central America and the connection of the continent's cities to each other, Terminal 2 of 2022; Panamá Pacífico of the old Howard base for the low-cost; Marcos A. Gelabert at Albrook of the domestic flights and the Bocas and San Blas hops; Enrique Malek of David; Bocas del Toro |
|---|---|
| Airline | Copa Airlines, the Compañía Panameña de Aviación of 1947, the hub carrier of 100 Boeing 737s to 80 cities of the Americas, the most punctual airline of the world by the rankings of the 2020s, the Star Alliance member, the profits of a decade; Air Panama of the domestic; the American, United, Iberia, KLM and Turkish of Tocumen |
| Main ports | Balboa on the Pacific and Cristóbal on the Atlantic, the two mouths of the Canal, the terminals of the Panama Ports Company taken by the state on 23 February 2026; Manzanillo of Colón of the SSA and the Colón Container Terminal of Evergreen, the largest transshipment complex of Latin America with about 9 million containers a year across the four; PSA Panama at Rodman; the Canal's own; the cruise ports of Amador and Colón 2000; the Pearl Islands and Bocas ferries |
| Railways | The Panama Canal Railway of 76 km from Panama City to Colón along the Canal, the line of 28 January 1855 that was the first transcontinental railroad of the Americas, built for the California gold rush over the bodies of thousands of the Chinese, Irish and West Indian workers, rebuilt in 2001 for the containers and the tourists' train; the Panama Metro of 5 April 2014, the first in Central America, Line 1 of 16 km, Line 2 of 2019 to the east and Line 3 of the monorail to Panamá Oeste under the Canal by the tunnel of 2025–26, the Panamanians' pride; the Chiriquí railway of the bananas gone; the train to Chiriquí and Costa Rica of the plans |
| Roads | About 15,000 km (9,300 mi), half paved — the Pan-American Highway of the Inter-American from Paso Canoas to Yaviza, 500 km, ending at the Darién Gap, the only break in the road from Alaska to Argentina; the Corredor Sur and Norte tolls of the capital, the Cinta Costera on the bay; the four crossings of the Canal — the Bridge of the Americas of 12 October 1962 at Balboa, the Centennial Bridge of 2004, the Atlantic Bridge of 2019 at Colón, the world's longest concrete cable-stayed bridge, and the fourth bridge of the Chinese consortium building since 2019 for 2027; the driving on the right; the Metrobus in place of the "diablos rojos," the painted buses retired in the 2010s; the pickups of the interior |
| The Canal transit | The Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks of the Pacific and the Gatún locks of the Atlantic, the Agua Clara and Cocolí locks of 2016, the Gaillard Cut through the Continental Divide, the Gatún Lake's 33 km, the mules that guide the ships; the Miraflores visitor center of the tourists; the pilots of the Authority who take every ship; the Panamax of 294 m and the Neopanamax of 366 m; the 50 hours of the queue in the drought |
History in dates
| c. 11,000 BC | The first hunters of the isthmus |
|---|---|
| c. 2500 BC | The Monagrillo pottery — the oldest of Central America |
| 1501 | Rodrigo de Bastidas — the first Europeans |
| 1502 | Columbus at Bocas del Toro and Portobelo |
| 1510 | Santa María la Antigua del Darién — the first mainland town |
| 1513 | Balboa sees the Pacific, 25 September |
| 1519 | Panamá founded, 15 August — Pedrarias |
| 1671 | Morgan sacks Panamá, 28 January; the new city, 1673 |
| 1698 | The Scots' Darién colony, to 1700 |
| 1739 | Vernon takes Portobelo |
| 1821 | Independence from Spain, 28 November — the union with Colombia |
| 1846 | The Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty — the American transit |
| 1855 | The railroad opens, 28 January — the first transcontinental |
| 1880 | De Lesseps begins the French canal, 1 January — 22,000 dead, bankrupt 1889 |
| 1903 | The separation, 3 November; the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty, 18 November |
| 1904 | The dollar, 20 June; the flag, 4 June; the American canal begins |
| 1914 | The Canal opens, 15 August — the SS Ancon |
| 1925 | The Guna revolution, February — the comarca |
| 1936 | The Hull–Alfaro Treaty |
| 1964 | Martyrs' Day, 9 January — 21 dead |
| 1968 | The coup, 11 October — Torrijos |
| 1977 | The Torrijos–Carter Treaties, 7 September |
| 1981 | Torrijos dies in a crash, 31 July |
| 1989 | The invasion, 20 December — "Just Cause" |
| 1990 | Noriega surrenders, 3 January |
| 1994 | The army abolished |
| 1999 | The Canal handed over, 31 December |
| 2006 | The expansion referendum, 22 October |
| 2014 | The Metro, 5 April |
| 2016 | The Panama Papers, 3 April; the expanded Canal, 26 June |
| 2017 | China recognized, 13 June |
| 2023 | The mine protests, October–November; the ruling, 28 November |
| 2024 | Martinelli to the embassy, 7 February; Fitch downgrades, 28 March; Mulino elected, 5 May; sworn, 1 July |
| 2025 | Trump's "taking it back," 20 January; Rubio, 2 February; the Belt and Road left, 6 February; the pension law, 18 March; the security memorandum, 9 April; the strikes, April–July; Martinelli to Colombia, 10 May; Chiquita closes, 22 May; the Bocas emergency, 20 June |
| 2026 | The concession voided, 29 January; the Guna boats, 10 February; the ports taken, 23 February; the mine task force, June; the World Cup, 11–23 June; the state-miner plan, July |
Records & firsts
| The Canal | 82 km, 13,000 ships a year |
|---|---|
| The first dollarized economy | 1904 |
| The largest ship registry | About 8,000 vessels |
| The first transcontinental railroad | 1855 |
| The oldest European city on the Pacific | Panamá Viejo, 1519 |
| The only break in the Pan-American Highway | The Darién Gap |
| The largest free port of the Americas | Colón |
| The first Metro of Central America | 2014 |
| The most expensive coffee | Geisha of Boquete |
| The most boxing champions per head | About thirty |
| The first unanimous Hall of Famer | Mariano Rivera, 2019 |
| A country without an army | Since 1994 |
| The first to leave the Belt and Road | 6 February 2025 |
| The Canal ports taken back | 23 February 2026 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Panama?
The Republic of Panama — República de Panamá — the state that separated from Colombia on 3 November 1903 with the United States Navy standing off Colón and signed away the Canal Zone fifteen days later in the treaty that a Frenchman negotiated for it, that abolished its army after the American invasion of 1989 and took back the Canal on the last day of 1999. The name is older than the country: Panamá was the fishing village on the Pacific where Pedro Arias Dávila founded the first European city on that ocean in 1519, and its meaning is argued over — "an abundance of fish" in the Cueva speech by the usual reading, "many butterflies" by another, or the name of a tree; the Panama hat, the world knows, is from Ecuador.
What is the capital of Panama?
Panama City — Ciudad de Panamá — the city of 1519 at the Pacific mouth of the isthmus, sacked by Henry Morgan in 1671 and rebuilt on its present peninsula in 1673, the terminus of the Spanish silver road, the railroad of 1855 and the Canal of 1914, a city of skyscrapers on the Pacific bay like no other in Central America, the Casco Viejo of the colonial quarter and the ruins of Panamá Viejo of the World Heritage, the banks of the Calle 50, the Metro of 2014, the Biomuseo of Frank Gehry — about 1 million people in the district and 2 million in the metropolis with San Miguelito and the towns of Panamá Oeste across the Bridge of the Americas, half the country. Colón at the Atlantic end of the Canal with its Free Zone, David of Chiriquí, Santiago and Chitré of the interior follow.
How big is Panama, and how many people live there?
About 75,420 km² (29,120 sq mi) — the size of South Carolina, a little smaller than Ireland — the S-shaped isthmus between the Caribbean and the Pacific that joins Central America to South America, 80 km wide at the Canal and 190 at the Darién, with Costa Rica to the west and Colombia to the east across the roadless jungle of the Darién Gap. The census of 2023 counted 4,064,780 people; the estimate for 2026 is about 4.5 million, half of them in the Panama City metropolis, growing at 1.4 percent a year — mestizo in the majority, Afro-Panamanian on the two coasts, Indigenous at 17 percent in the Ngäbe, Guna, Emberá and Wounaan comarcas, white in the old families, and the largest Chinese community of Central America since the railroad workers of 1850.
What are the highest and lowest points of Panama?
Volcán Barú, 3,475 m (11,401 ft), the dormant volcano of the Cordillera de Talamanca in Chiriquí above Boquete, from whose summit on a clear dawn both oceans can be seen; and the two oceans, 80 km apart, joined by the Canal through the Gaillard Cut at 26 m above them, the ships lifted by the locks to the level of Gatún Lake, the artificial lake of 425 km² that the damming of the Chagres made in 1913, the largest in the world then, whose water lifts every ship and whose drought of 2023–24 cut the transits by a third. The Tuira, 230 km, is the longest river, the Darién the largest wilderness of Central America and the only break in the Pan-American Highway, and Coiba the largest island of the Pacific coast of the Americas that is a national park.
What currency does Panama use?
The balboa (ISO code PAB, B/.), of 100 centésimos, the country's own currency since 1904 and worth exactly one U.S. dollar, but issued only as coins — the dollar itself is the legal tender and the paper money of the country under the monetary agreement of 1904, the first dollarized economy in the world and the reason for the banking center of 60 banks, the flag registry and the Colón Free Zone; the seven-dollar balboa notes of 1941 lasted a week. Clocks keep Eastern Standard Time, UTC−5, all year, the same as New York in winter; Panama drives on the right, and the Bridge of the Americas of 1962 carries the highway across the Canal.
Who governs Panama?
President José Raúl Mulino of the Realizando Metas party, head of state and government since 1 July 2024 — the lawyer and former security minister who was the running mate of the ex-president Ricardo Martinelli until the courts barred Martinelli for money laundering two months before the election of 5 May 2024, took his place at the top of the ticket, won with 34 percent in a field of eight, and governs without a vice president, the office vacant for the term. His two years have been the Canal's: the president who answered Trump's "we're taking it back" with "the Canal is Panama's and will remain so," left China's Belt and Road, signed a security agreement with Washington, and in February 2026 took the two Canal ports from the Hong Kong company whose concession the Supreme Court had voided — while closing the Darién to the migrants, pushing a pension reform through strikes that shut the schools and the construction sites, and weighing the reopening of the copper mine that a court and the streets closed in 2023. The National Assembly is led by the independents of Vamos; the next election is due in May 2029.
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