Jose Sanchez
Research expert covering society, economy, & politics for Latin America
Demographics of Panama - statistics & facts
Panama ranks as the second-lowest population in Central America, only surpassing Belize, with around 4.39 million people as of 2022. The forecast indicates that the figure will continue to increase, reaching around 4.8 million by 2029. Nonetheless, the growth rate has been constantly declining, going from 1.78 percent in 2012 to only 1.31 percent in 2022. As for the gender distribution, Panama has a very close number of males and females, both accounting for around 50 percent each.
Still a young population
As of recent years, the inhabitants of the Central American country recorded a quite young median age, at almost 29 years on average. Not only that, over 65 percent of the population was among the working ages groups (15-64) and another 25 percent was younger than that. Despite that, it is expected that the population will constantly grow older due to the declining birth rate. As of 2012, the number of births per 1,000 inhabitants was almost 20, while in 2021 the figure was lower than 15 newborns.Population density
With 75.517 square kilometers, Panama is not one of the most extensive countries in Latin America, also ranks with the third-lowest population density in Central America, only above Nicaragua and Belize. On average, there are less than 60 inhabitants per square kilometer, around five times less than in El Salvador, the most densely populated country in the region. Panama City was the most populous city in the country as of 2023 with over 1.13 million inhabitants, followed by La Chorrera and Colón.Nuptiality
Similar to the birth rate, the marriage rate of the country has been constantly declining since 2011, reaching the lowest point during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In the past eleven years, the number of marriages per 1,000 inhabitants decreased by 1.5 cases, recording only 2.6 marriages per 1,000 people in 2022. West Panama and Chiriqui were the provinces with the highest number of marriages, while Panama had the highest number of divorces.
