About Panama

The map shows Panama, a country on the Isthmus of Panama, the land bridge between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean that links North and South America. Panama borders Colombia in the east and Costa Rica in the west. The country is named after the capital, which itself is named after an original fishing village.

With an area of 75,517 km², Panama is somewhat larger than the Republic of Ireland or a little smaller than the U.S. state of South Carolina. Panama features long coastlines along both, the North Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean.

The country has a population of 4.5 million people in 2025. The capital and largest city is Panama City. Panama is a melting pot of Afro-Caribbean, Spanish, Chinese, Indian, and indigenous ethnic groups, which is partly due to the international workforce in the Canal Zone.

Panama's official language is Spanish. The predominant religion is Christianity and Catholicism (more than 80% of the population).

More about Panama

🌎 Geography of Panama

Panama's terrain is a land bridge connecting South America with Central America. Its landscape is dominated by a central range of mountains and hills, known as the Cordillera Central.
The mountain range and its subranges, such as the Cordillera de Talamanca and the Tabasará Mountains (Serranía de Tabasará), stretch across the country and form part of the continental divide.

The highest peak is Volcán Barú at 3,475 meters (11,401 ft). The dormant volcano is located in the west, near the town of Cerro Punta and close to the border with Costa Rica.

To the south of the isthmus lies the Azuero Peninsula, a culturally rich but dry and eroded region with low hills and savannas. The peninsula is known for its distinct eastern and western halves. The eastern part features main cultural centers like Las Tablas and Chitré. The towns are known for their vibrant Carnival celebrations festivals and colonial architecture. The less-developed western part offers mountains and pristine beaches for activities like fishing and surfing.

In the east of the land bridge the landscape is characterized by rugged and densely forested mountains, like the Serranía de San Blas, the Serranía de Majé, the Serranía del Sapo, and the Serranía de Darién near the Colombian border.

Coasts

Panama's Caribbean coast features coral reefs, lush rainforests, and swampy lowlands. It has a quieter, more cultural atmosphere, with calm waters ideal for snorkeling and diving. The coast includes the Gulf of Mosquitos, the Chiriquí Lagoon, and islands such as Bocas del Toro.

The more extensive Pacific coast offers wide bays and the large Gulf of Panama. It features developed tourist areas, a variety of well-known beaches, including the Pearl Archipelago, and more challenging dive conditions due to stronger ocean currents.

Located in the Gulf of Chiriquí is Coiba National Park, a marine reserve off Panama's Pacific coast. Coiba National Park and its Special Zone of Marine Protection is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Offshore

Panama's underwater geography reveals key features. To the south lies the Panama Basin, part of the Pacific seabed. Along the Pacific rim runs the Colombian Trench, a deep subduction zone that continues south as the Ecuador Trench. Near the coast the extensive, shallow continental shelf is supporting a rich and diverse marine ecosystem.

Bocas del Toro

Bocas del Toro is a province on Panama's Caribbean coast, known for its island landscapes, Afro-Caribbean heritage, surf beaches, lush rainforests, and marine life. The archipelago includes Isla Colón, the province's capital, and remote islands surrounded by coral reefs and mangroves. The region is a blend of cultures, including Afro-Caribbean people, Indigenous Ngäbe communities, and international expats, creating a colorful blend of languages, sounds, and food. The archipelago is a thriving ecotourism hub, attracting visitors with its marine parks and biodiversity.

Borders & Darién Gap

Panama borders Costa Rica to the west and Colombia to the east. While Panama and Costa Rica maintain a relatively stable and cooperative relationship, the border with Colombia is defined by the dense, roadless jungle of the Darién Gap, a natural barrier between Central and South America. At the Darién Gap, the Pan-American Highway is interrupted, making it the only break in the otherwise continuous road system stretching from Alaska to the southern tip of South America.

Once seen mainly as an impenetrable natural barrier, the Darién Gap has in recent years become a major migration corridor, as thousands of people from South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia cross the region on their way to North America. Despite its extreme dangers—dense jungle, rivers, criminal groups, and lack of infrastructure, the Gap has seen record crossings.
The Darién Gap has seen a dramatic decline in crossings due to recent U.S. immigration policies. he U.S. pressured Panama to enhance border security, leading to the closure of migrant reception centers and increased patrols in the Darién region. In 2023, over 500,000 migrants traversed the Darién Gap, but by February 2025, that number plummeted to just 408—a 99% decrease. ^[CFR]
The Darien National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, due to its exceptional variety of habitats—sandy beaches, rocky coasts, mangroves, swamps, and tropical lowland and highland forests with remarkable wildlife.

Indigenous People of Panama

Panama is still home to several Indigenous groups, including the Guna, Ngäbe-Buglé, Emberá, Wounaan, and other Chocóan peoples. Together, they make up roughly 12% of Panama's population. Many live in comarcas—semi-autonomous regions with forms of self-governance, where they preserve traditional languages and ways of life, similar to those of pre-Columbian times.

Panama Canal

The map shows the course of the approximately 80 km (50 mi) long Panama Canal.
The artificial waterway that cuts through the narrowest part of the country was completed in 1914. It connects the Atlantic (via the Caribbean Sea) to the Pacific Ocean and is one of the world's most strategic maritime passages. The canal route includes Gatun Lake, an artificial lake formed by damming the Chagres River.


The Panama Canal is a vital artery of global trade, handling around five percent of all maritime commerce. Container ships transiting the canal typically pay tolls ranging from $60,000 to $300,000 USD, depending on size and cargo.

In times of high demand—especially during droughts that limit the number of daily transits due to reduced water levels—an auction system comes into play. This system allows shipping companies to bid for premium slots, with some vessels paying millions to jump the queue and avoid costly delays.
The canal's dependence on freshwater from Gatun Lake makes it especially vulnerable to climate-related challenges.

Strategic Importance

Panama's location at the crossroads of two continents and oceans gives it great geopolitical and economic influence.

The Panama Canal is not only vital for international shipping but also for U.S.–China trade and global logistics.

Control over this route has shaped Panama's modern history, from U.S. intervention in mid-December 1989, ^[WP] to the peaceful canal handover ten years later.

Rivers

Major rivers in Panama are

Río Balsas
Río Balsas is a short river on Panama's Pacific side, which flows through hilly terrain into the Gulf of Panama. Locally important for fishing and small agriculture.


Río Chagres
The Río Chagres is Panama's most important river for the operation of the Panama Canal. Rising in the Cordillera Central, it flows about 193 km (120 mi) northward to the Caribbean Sea near Colón. At Gamboa, the river meets the canal, forming part of its central waterway. The construction of the Gatún Dam in 1913 created Gatún Lake, then the world's largest artificial lake, essential for canal traffic. Today the Chagres continues to supply water for the locks, for Panama City, and for surrounding communities, making it one of the most strategic rivers in the Americas.


Río Changuinola
Changuinola River is Panama's powerhouse in the northwest. It rises in the Cordillera Central mountains, flows across Bocas del Toro province, and empties into the Caribbean Sea. Several major hydroelectric facilities exploit the kinetic energy of the stream that also serves as a transport route into the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca highlands. Its fertile river banks near the mouth are lined with extensive banana plantations.


Río Chepo
The Río Chepo, also called Río Bayano, is one of Panama's longest rivers. It flows for about 206 km (128 mi) from the Darién foothills to the Pacific coast east of Panama City. In the 1970s, Panama created with the Bayano Dam one of the country's largest reservoirs, the Bayano Lake. The construction of the dam flooded forests, displaced villages, and reshaped a large area in the region. Today more than ever, the river and its reservoir are of central importance for the country's hydropower and its water-hungry capital region, which is increasingly stressed by droughts, low rainfall, and growing demand to run the Panama Canal.


Río Chucunaque
The Río Chucunaque is the longest river in Panama. It flows for about 231 km (143 mi) through the dense forests of Darién Province before joining the Tuira River on its way to the Pacific. The river is the main transport artery of the Darién Gap, a region without roads where dugout canoes and small boats replace cars and buses. Along its banks lie scattered Emberá and Wounaan villages, sustained by fishing, farming, and the forest. The Chucunaque floods often, bringing both fertile soils and destructive damage. Today, like other rivers in Panama, it faces growing pressure from deforestation, changing rainfall, and the challenges of balancing development with the fragile ecosystem of the Darién.


Río Indio
Río Indio is a modest river on Panama's Caribbean slope, feeding villages and sustaining indigenous communities. Long ago its valley was studied as a possible route for a second canal. Today, the Río Indio reservoir project is a proposed infrastructure initiative by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) to build a new reservoir on Panama's Indio River to ensure a stable water supply for the Panama Canal amidst increasingly severe droughts.


Río San Pablo
The Río San Pablo runs from the Tabasará mountains for over 80 km (50 mi) through Veraguas Province to the Gulf of Montijo on the Pacific coast. The river's fertile valley supports small towns and farms and is vital to the local daily life and agriculture.


Río Santa María
The 150-kilometer-long Río Santa María flows through the province of Veraguas into the Pacific. Its fertile valley is a protected area and one of Panama's main breadbaskets. The river supplies water to rice fields, sugar cane plantations, and cattle farms. In colonial times Spanish settlers followed the river inland, founding towns and churches along its banks.

Tectonic

Panama lies just outside the main arc of the Pacific Ring of Fire but is geologically active due to its position at the intersection of several tectonic plates. The country sits near the boundaries of the Cocos Plate (to the southwest), the Nazca Plate (farther south), the Caribbean Plate (to the north), and the South American Plate (to the southeast).
Along the Pacific rim of Colombia and extending into the regional tectonic system, the Colombian Trench marks the zone where the Cocos Plate subducts beneath the Caribbean Plate.
At the Colombian Trench off Colombia's Pacific coast, the Cocos Plate is subducting beneath the Caribbean Plate. This tectonic interaction causes earthquakes, especially in the western and southern regions, and some volcanic activity, mainly near the border with Costa Rica, such as Volcán Barú.

Formation of the Isthmus

Some 20 million years ago, the area of present-day Panama lay beneath the ocean. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans flowed freely between the continents. Beneath the surface, however, two tectonic plates slowly converged. The Pacific Plate began to subduct beneath the Caribbean Plate. This collision generated intense heat and pressure, giving rise to underwater volcanoes. By around 15 million years ago, some of these volcanoes had grown large enough to break through the sea surface, forming the first islands of what would eventually become the Isthmus of Panama. ^[NASA]