Panama

North AmericaCapital city: Panama CityCapital metro: Panama CityPresident: José Raúl Mulino
2026 population
4.1M
Rank #131 globally
Area
75k km² (29k sq mi)
Metros tracked
5
66% of population in metros
Composite score
20.2
Rank #67 globally

population: 2023 census (1 Jul 2026) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 5 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography5 metros

Panama metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
5 polygons

Hover for rank, click to open the metro page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 5 tracked metros
5 metros
🗂️ Administrative subdivisions

13 entries listed under Panama across 2 types. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

13 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
Spanish
Government
Presidential system
Legislature
National Assembly of Panama
Demonym
Panamanian
Time zone
UTC-05:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+507
Internet TLD
.pa
ISO 3166
PA
Established
1903
Highest point
Volcan Baru (3,475 m (11,401 ft))
National anthem
National anthem of Panama

Facts via Wikidata.

📰 In the news2 stories
Every story in the latest digest →
💹 Economy and developmentHigh income
Human Dev. Index
#58 / 191
0.839
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#81 / 193
$90.5B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#58 / 193
$19.8k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#52 / 190
$43.9k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#57 / 192
$19.1k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#43 / 194
79.8 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
29.6 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#85 / 194
66%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
1.2%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#124 / 193
60/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#60 / 193
10.6%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#71 / 175
0.69
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#157 / 166
49.7
World Bank · 2024
Internet users
#115 / 193
73%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#10 / 185
-0.2%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#96 / 192
2.8 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#48 / 186
68%
Ember · 2024

Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.

Alliances & Organisations3 full memberships

Political & Economic

Regional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History51 leaders · click to expand

marks a leader associated with atrocities or defiance of law, systemic subversion of democratic institutions, or a criminal conviction. Convictions arising from political persecution, and annulled convictions, are excluded. denotes a monarch. These are editorial designations, applied per entry rather than derived automatically.

José Raúl Mulino✦ Current

2024Present

President

Tenure: 2y 0m

Laurentino Cortizo

20192024

President

Tenure: 5y 0m

Juan Carlos Varela

20142019

President

Tenure: 5y 0m

Ricardo Martinelli

20092014

President

Tenure: 5y 0m

Martín Torrijos

20042009

President

Tenure: 4y 10m

Mireya Moscoso

19992004

President

Tenure: 5y 0m

Ernesto Pérez Balladares

19941999

President

Tenure: 5y 0m

Guillermo Endara

19891994

President

Tenure: 4y 8m

Francisco Rodríguez

19891989

President

Tenure: 0y 3m

Manuel Solís Palma

19881989

President

Tenure: 1y 6m

Eric Arturo Delvalle

19851988

President

Tenure: 2y 4m

Nicolás Ardito Barletta

19841985

President

Tenure: 0y 11m
Show all 51 leaders

Jorge Illueca

19841984

President

Tenure: 0y 7m

Ricardo de la Espriella

19821984

President

Tenure: 1y 6m

Arístides Royo

19781982

President

Tenure: 3y 9m

Demetrio B. Lakas

19691978

President

Tenure: 8y 9m

Arnulfo Arias

19681968

President

Tenure: 0y 0m

Marco Aurelio Robles

19641968

President

Tenure: 4y 0m

Roberto Francisco Chiari

19631964

President

Tenure: 1y 6m

Roberto Francisco Chiari

19601963

President

Tenure: 2y 5m

Ernesto de la Guardia

19561960

President

Tenure: 4y 0m

Ricardo Arias

19551956

President

Tenure: 1y 6m

José Ramón Guizado

19551955

President

Tenure: 0y 2m

José Antonio Remón Cantera

19521955

President

Tenure: 2y 3m

Alcibíades Arosemena

19511952

President

Tenure: 1y 4m

Arnulfo Arias

19491951

President

Tenure: 1y 5m

Roberto Francisco Chiari

19491949

President

Tenure: 0y 0m

Daniel Chanis Pinzón

19491949

President

Tenure: 0y 3m

Domingo Díaz Arosemena

19481949

President

Tenure: 0y 11m

Enrique Adolfo Jiménez

19451948

President

Tenure: 3y 1m

Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia

19411945

President

Tenure: 3y 8m

Arnulfo Arias

19401941

President

Tenure: 1y 0m

Augusto Samuel Boyd

19391940

President

Tenure: 0y 9m

Juan Demóstenes Arosemena

19361939

President

Tenure: 3y 2m

Harmodio Arias Madrid

19321936

President

Tenure: 4y 3m

Ricardo Joaquín Alfaro

19311932

President

Tenure: 1y 4m

Harmodio Arias Madrid

19311931

President

Tenure: 0y 0m

Florencio Harmodio Arosemena

19281931

President

Tenure: 2y 3m

Rodolfo Chiari

19241928

President

Tenure: 4y 0m

Belisario Porras

19201924

President

Tenure: 4y 0m

Ernesto Tisdel Lefevre

19201920

President

Tenure: 0y 8m

Belisario Porras

19181920

President

Tenure: 1y 3m

Ciro Luis Urriola

19181918

President

Tenure: 0y 3m

Ramón Maximiliano Valdés

19161918

President

Tenure: 1y 8m

Belisario Porras

19121916

President

Tenure: 4y 0m

Pablo Arosemena

19101912

President

Tenure: 1y 11m

Carlos Antonio Mendoza

19101910

President

Tenure: 0y 7m

José Domingo de Obaldía

19081910

President

Tenure: 1y 5m

Manuel Amador Guerrero

19071908

President

Tenure: 0y 9m

José Domingo de Obaldía

19071907

President

Tenure: 0y 6m

Manuel Amador Guerrero

19041907

President

Tenure: 3y 4m
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#63 · 0.2%
3%5%8%10%19502000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Panama · share of world power, 1920–2026

The powerline is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.

⚔️ Conflicts since 19452 interstate wars · click to expand
Combat deaths: 540–3,338
Combat deaths:

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
4.5m
#129 in the world
Since 1800
59×
from 76k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.06%
0.01% in 1800
1.2m2.3m3.5m4.6m18001850190019502000
Panama · people, 1800–2023 · dashed to 2026 is projected

Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Note that people and share of world can move in opposite directions. A country can grow steadily and still become a smaller part of humanity, which is what happened to almost every rich country after 1960.

👥 To 2100

The UN’s probabilistic projection for Panama: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.

Peak on the median
2080
6.0m on the UN median
2050
5.6m
95% band 5.1m to 6.2m
2100
5.9m
95% band 3.8m to 9.0m
2100 against 2025
1.29×
median falling from 2081
Deaths outnumber births
from 2078
on the UN medium path; migration decides the rest
2.4m4.7m7.1m9.4m1950197520002025205020752100

Tap or drag across the chart to read any year: the estimate to 2023, then the UN median, its bands and the scenarios.

estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
35k born · 11k died · -3k net migration
TFR 5.57 · life expectancy 55.4 · median age 17.7
1960
46k born · 11k died · -2k net migration
TFR 5.83 · life expectancy 60.3 · median age 16.7
1970
57k born · 11k died · -2k net migration
TFR 5.17 · life expectancy 64.1 · median age 16.5
1980
59k born · 10k died · -3k net migration
TFR 3.80 · life expectancy 69.5 · median age 18.0
1990
66k born · 12k died · -854 net migration
TFR 3.07 · life expectancy 71.3 · median age 20.5
2000
71k born · 15k died · +3k net migration
TFR 2.74 · life expectancy 73.4 · median age 23.3
2010
76k born · 17k died · +5k net migration
TFR 2.59 · life expectancy 76.4 · median age 25.9
2020
72k born · 25k died · +5k net migration
TFR 2.18 · life expectancy 76.3 · median age 28.7
Show all 16 decades
2030
71k born · 26k died · +4k net migration
TFR 2.01 · life expectancy 80.9 · median age 31.9
2040
70k born · 32k died · +2k net migration
TFR 1.92 · life expectancy 82.6 · median age 35.1
2050
67k born · 41k died · +2k net migration
TFR 1.85 · life expectancy 84.1 · median age 38.2
2060
64k born · 49k died · +3k net migration
TFR 1.81 · life expectancy 85.4 · median age 41.2
2070
61k born · 55k died · +3k net migration
TFR 1.79 · life expectancy 86.7 · median age 43.3
2080
58k born · 60k died · +3k net migration
TFR 1.76 · life expectancy 87.9 · median age 45.1
2090
55k born · 64k died · +3k net migration
TFR 1.75 · life expectancy 89.0 · median age 46.7
2100
53k born · 67k died · +2k net migration
TFR 1.74 · life expectancy 90.1 · median age 48.0

Every country to 2100 →

Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.

🏆 National Teams

Panama on the international stage. Click a card for the full record.