Demographics of Panama

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Panama, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Population

Panama's population, (1961-2003).

Panama's population was 3,678,000 in 2010, compared to 860,000 in 1950. The proportion of the population aged below 15 in 2010 was 29%. 64.5% of the population were aged between 15 and 65, with 6.6% of the population being 65 years or older.^[1]

	Total population (x 1000)	Proportion aged 0–14 (%)	Proportion aged 15–64 (%)	Proportion aged 65+ (%)
1950	860	40.2	55.7	4.1
1955	983	41.8	54.1	4.1
1960	1 136	42.9	52.8	4.3
1965	1 319	43.8	51.8	4.4
1970	1 526	43.9	51.8	4.3
1975	1 754	42.8	52.8	4.4
1980	1 990	40.4	55.0	4.6
1985	2 233	37.6	57.6	4.7
1990	2 487	35.2	59.9	5.0
1995	2 757	33.3	61.5	5.2
2000	3 055	31.8	62.6	5.5
2005	3 366	30.4	63.7	5.9
2010	3 678	29.0	64.5	6.6

Structure of the population ^[2]

Structure of the population (01.07.2013) (Estimates - Data refer to projections based on the 2010 Population Census):

Age Group	Male	Female	Total	%
Total	1 934 264	1 916 471	3 850 735	100
0-4	187 797	179 822	367 619	9,55
5-9	184 487	176 909	361 396	9,39
10-14	180 579	173 379	353 958	9,19
15-19	170 895	164 639	335 534	8,71
20-24	160 414	155 878	316 292	8,21
25-29	154 493	150 986	305 479	7,93
30-34	147 618	144 488	292 106	7,59
35-39	140 942	138 936	279 878	7,27
40-44	130 725	130 042	260 767	6,77
45-49	113 877	114 213	228 090	5,92
50-54	96 564	98 076	194 640	5,05
55-59	76 084	78 641	154 725	4,02
60-64	58 974	62 105	121 079	3,14
65-69	45 360	48 700	94 060	2,44
70-74	33 839	37 313	71 152	1,85
75-79	23 622	27 020	50 642	1,32
80-84	14 944	17 956	32 900	0,85
85-89	8 174	10 458	18 632	0,48
90-94	3 573	4 938	8 511	0,22
95-99	1 119	1 678	2 797	0,07
100+	184	294	478	0,01

Age group	Male	Female	Total	Percent
0-14	552 863	530 110	1 082 973	28,12
15-64	1 250 586	1 238 004	2 488 590	64,63
65+	130 815	148 357	279 172	7,25

Population distribution

More than half the population lives in the Panama City-Colón metropolitan corridor.

Bocas del Toro

Coclé

Colón

Chiriquí

Darién

Herrera

Los Santos

Panamá

Veraguas

West Panamá

Kuna Yala

Emberá-Wounaan No 1

Emberá-Wounaan No 2

Ngöbe-Buglé Comarca

Madugandí

Wargandí

Province	Capital city	Population(2010 Est.)[3]
Bocas del Toro	Bocas del Toro	118,405
Coclé	Penonomé	237,840
Colón	Colón	250,802
Chiriquí	David	426,790
Darién	La Palma	46,011
Herrera	Chitré	112,538
Los Santos	Las Tablas	90,984
Panamá	Ciudad de Panamá	1,796,674
Veraguas	Santiago	226,847
Comarca	Capital city	Population
Emberá-Wounaan	Unión Choco	9,497
Kuna de Madugandí	N/D	N/D
Kuna Yala	El Porvenir	37,545
Kuna de Wargandí	N/D	N/D
Ngöbe-Buglé	Buabidi	150,550

Ethnic groups

Ethnic Groups in Panama %^[4]

  Mestizos (66%)

  Blacks (14%)

  Whites (10%)

  Amerindians (6%)

  Asians (4%)

The culture, customs, and language of Panama are predominantly Caribbean Spanish. In 2010 the population was 65% Mestizo (mixed white, Native American), 9.2% Black, 6.8% mulattoes, 6.7% White and 6% Native Americans.^[4]

Ethnic groups in Panama include British and Irish, Dutch, French, Germans, Italians, Portuguese, Poles, Russians or Ukrainians (a large number are Jews), and Americans.

Afro-Panamanian groups include West Indies/Caribbean (esp. Afro-Caribbean) nationalities, in which thousands of Barbadian and Jamaican workers played a role in the construction of the Panama Canal. During the Atlantic Slave Trade, thousands of West Africans were transported to various places in Panama. This took place around the 1500s, making half of all Panamanians contain African ancestry. There has also been immigration of Arabs and Asians: in particular Chinese, Lebanese, Palestinians, South Asians (from India and Pakistan) and Syrians.

Indigenous

Population of Panama according to ethnic group^[5]

Ethnic group	Census 1990		Census 2000		Census 2010
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Non-indigenous	2,135,060	91.7	2,553,946	90.0	2,988,254	87.7
Amerindian	194,269	8.3	285,231	10.0	417,559	12.3
Total	2,329,329		2,839,177		3,405,813

Indigenous population of Panama according to ethnic group^[5]

Ethnic group	Census 1990		Census 2000		Census 2010
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Ngäbe (Guaymi)	123,626	63.6	169,130	59.3	260,058	62.3
Buglé (Bokota)	3,784	1.9	18,724	6.6	26,871	6.4
Kuna	47,298	24.3	61,707	21.6	80,526	19.3
Emberá	14,659	7.5	22,485	7.9	31,284	7.5
Wounaan	2,605	1.3	6,882	2.4	7,279	1.7
Teribe/Naso	2,194	1.1	3,305	1.2	4,046	1.0
Bribri			2,521	0.9	1,068	0.3
Other	103	0.1			460	0.1
Not declared			477	0.2	5,967	1.4

Chinese

Panama has a considerable populations of Chinese origin. The first Chinese immigrated to Panama from southern China to help build the Panama Railroad in the 19th century. There followed several waves of immigrants whose descendants number around 50,000. Starting in the 1970s, a further 80,000 have immigrated from various parts of China. Most of the Chinese population reside in the province of Chiriquí.^[6][7]

African Panamanians

Afro-Panamanians first arrived during the colonial era. They are intermixed in the general population or live in small Afro-Panamanian communities along the Atlantic Coast and in villages within the Darién jungle. Most of the people in Darien are fishermen or small-scale farmers growing crops such as bananas, rice and coffee as well as raising livestock. Other Afro-Panamanians descend from later migrants from the Caribbean who came to work on railroad-construction projects, commercial agricultural enterprises, and (especially) the canal. Important Afro-Caribbean community areas include towns and cities such as Colón, Cristobal and Balboa, in the former Canal Zone, as well as the Río Abajo area of Panama City. Another region with a large Afro-Caribbean population is the province of Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean coast just south of Costa Rica.^[8]

Most of the Panamanian population of West Indian descent owe their presence in the country to the monumental efforts to build the Panama Canal in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Three-quarters of the 50,000 workers who built the canal were Afro Caribbean migrants from the British West Indies. Thousands of Afro-Caribbean workers were recruited from Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad.^[8]

Languages

Many languages, including seven indigenous languages, are spoken in Panama, although Spanish is the official and dominant language. English is sometimes spoken by many professionals and those working in the business or governmental sectors of society.

Religion

The majority of Panamanians are Christian; most are Roman Catholics as a result centuries of Spanish colonial influence. Other faiths exist in Panama by the country's tolerance and freedom of religion, there are large Protestant, Jewish, Bahá'í, Muslim and Hindu religious groups in Panama.

• Roman Catholic 79%, Protestant 17% and other religions about 5%.

Vital statistics

Registration of vital events is in Panama not complete. The Population Departement of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.^[1]

Period	Live births per year	Deaths per year	Natural change per year	CBR*	CDR*	NC*	TFR*	IMR*	Life expectancy total	Life expectancy males	Life expectancy females
1950-1955	38 000	11 000	27 000	41.4	12.0	29.5	5.76	92	56.8	55.9	57.8
1955-1960	44 000	11 000	33 000	41.7	10.6	31.1	5.87	80	59.5	58.6	60.5
1960-1965	50 000	11 000	39 000	40.9	9.2	31.6	5.79	68	62.1	61.1	63.3
1965-1970	55 000	12 000	44 000	38.8	8.1	30.7	5.41	58	64.3	63.2	65.6
1970-1975	59 000	11 000	48 000	36.1	7.0	29.2	4.88	48	66.7	65.1	68.5
1975-1980	61 000	11 000	50 000	32.5	5.9	26.6	4.19	39	69.2	67.2	71.5
1980-1985	62 000	11 000	51 000	29.5	5.4	24.1	3.63	34	71.0	68.6	73.7
1985-1990	64 000	12 000	53 000	27.3	5.1	22.3	3.24	29	72.4	69.6	75.4
1990-1995	67 000	13 000	54 000	25.5	4.9	20.6	2.96	26	73.6	70.8	76.5
1995-2000	71 000	14 000	57 000	24.6	4.8	19.8	2.87	24	74.6	72.2	77.2
2000-2005	74 000	15 000	59 000	23.1	4.8	18.3	2.76	20	75.6	73.0	78.3
2005-2010	75 000	17 000	58 000	21.3	4.9	16.4	2.62	17	76.4	73.6	79.5
* CBR = crude birth rate (per 1000); CDR = crude death rate (per 1000); NC = natural change (per 1000); IMR = infant mortality rate per 1000 births; TFR = total fertility rate (number of children per woman)

Births and deaths ^[2]

Year	Population	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase	Crude birth rate	Crude death rate	Rate of natural increase	TFR
2009		68 364	15 498	52 866	19,0			2,5
2010	3 405 813	67 955	16 542	51 413	18,6			2,4
2011		73 292	16 367	56 925	19,7			2,5
2012		75 486	17 350	58 136	19,9			2,5
2013		73 804	17 767	56 037	19,2
2014
2015		75 183	18 171	57 012	18.9	4.6	14.3

See also

• Panama
• Ethnic groups in Central America

References

1. Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision
2. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/dyb/dyb2.htm
3. http://www.contraloria.gob.pa/dec/Publicaciones/13-03/Boletin9.pdf
4. "CIA - The World Factbook -- Panama". CIA. Archived from the original on 22 August 2013. Retrieved 2013-10-07.
5. Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Censo (INEC)
6. Jackson, Eric (May 2004). "Panama's Chinese community celebrates a birthday, meets new challenges". The Panama News 10 (9). Retrieved November 7, 2007.
7. "President Chen's State Visit to Panama". Government Information Office, Republic of China. October 2003. Archived from the original on August 14, 2007. Retrieved November 7, 2007.
8. "Panama : Afro-Panamanians". Minority Rights Group International. Retrieved June 26, 2010.

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the CIA World Factbook.