Panamanians

For information on the population of Panama, see Demographics of Panama.

Panamanians (Spanish: Panameños) are people identified with Panama, a country in Central America (which is the central section of the American continent), and with residential, legal, historical, or cultural connections with North America. For most Panamanians, several or all of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their Panamanian identity. Panama is a multilingual and multicultural society, home to people of many different ethnicities and religions. Therefore, many Panamanians do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizenship and allegiance to Panama. The overwhelming majority of Panamanians are the product of varying degrees of admixture between European ethnic groups (predominantly Spaniards) with native Amerindians (who are indigenous to Panama's modern territory) and Black Africans.

Panamanians
Panameños

Flag of Panama
Total population
Panama          4,279 million
Regions with significant populations
United States	99,764
Costa Rica	13,711
Spain	5,730
Colombia	3,123
Canada	2,814
Mexico	1,767
Italy	1,102
Ecuador	1,008
Venezuela	828
Germany	811
United Kingdom	789
Dominican Republic	789
Brazil	660
Peru	644
Switzerland	588
France	582
El Salvador	458
Nicaragua	423
Honduras	406
Netherlands	390
Guatemala	321
Sweden	319
Australia	289
Belgium	211
Argentina	161
Greece	158
Bolivia	121
Denmark	101
Norway	85
Jamaica	74
Languages
Panamanian Spanish (predominantly) Bocas del Toro Creole, Guaymí and other Amerindian languages
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholicism Judaism, Protestantism, Santería, Baháʼí
Related ethnic groups
Afro-Panamanians, Nicaraguans, Costa Ricans, Colombians, and other Latin Americans

The culture held in common by most Panamanians is referred to as mainstream Panamanian culture, a culture largely derived from the traditions of the Indigenous people and the early Spanish settlers, along with other Europeans arriving later such as Italians, with west African culture as another important component.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Panama

The culture of Panama derived from the cultures of Indigenous peoples of Panama, art and traditions, as well as African Culture that were brought over by the Spanish to Panama. Hegemonic forces have created hybrid forms of this by blending African and Native American culture with European culture. For example, the tamborito is a Spanish dance with that was blended with Native American rhythms and dance moves. Dance is a symbol of the diverse cultures that have coupled in Panama. The culture, customs, and language of the Panamanians are predominantly Caribbean and Spanish.

Ethnic groups

Ethnic Groups

  Mestizos (mixed Amerindian and White) (65%)

  Native Americans (12.3%)

  Black or African descent (9.2%)

  Mulattos (mixed Black African and White) (6.8%)

  White (6.7%)

Mestizo

Main article: Demographics of Panama

Mestizos are people who are of mixed of both European and indigenous ancestry. Mestizos are the majority in Panama, accounting for 65% of the country's population.

Indigenous or Amerindian

Main article: Indigenous peoples of Panama

Indigenous or Native Panamanians, are the native peoples of Panama. According to the 2010 census, they make up 12.3% of the overall population of 3.4 million, or just over 418,000 people. The Ngäbe and Buglé comprise half of the indigenous peoples of Panama.

Indigenous population of Panama by ethnic group
Ethnic group	1990		2000		2010
	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%
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
Guna	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

Black

Felipe Baloy

Main article: Afro-Panamanian

Afro-Panamanians played a significant role in the creation of the republic. The descendants of the Africans who arrived during the colonial era 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.

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.

White or Europeans

Juan Carlos Varela 37th President of Panama.

White Panamanians form 6.7%, with the majority being of Spanish descent. Other ancestries includes Dutch, English, French, German, Swiss, Danish, Irish, Greek, Italian, Lebanese, Portuguese, Turkish, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian. There is also a sizable and very influential Jewish community.

• 
  Spanish laborers during construction of the Panama Canal, early 1900s.

Asian

Jorge Cham

Panama, partly owing to its historical reliance on commerce, is an ethnically diverse society. It has considerable populations of Afro-Antillean and 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 other parts of China as well.

Population of Panama according to ethnic group
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

Languages

Spanish is the official and dominant language. About 93% of the population speak Spanish as their first language, though many citizens speak both English and Spanish or native languages, such as Ngäbere. Many languages, including seven indigenous languages, are also spoken in Panama. English is sometimes spoken by many professionals and those working in the business or governmental sectors of society.

Religion

Main article: Religion in Panama

Iglesia San Pedro, Taboga Island, Panama. The Iglesia San Pedro is the second-oldest colonial church in the Western Hemisphere.

The government of Panama does not collect statistics on the religious affiliation of citizens, but various sources estimate that 75 to 85 percent of the population identifies itself as Roman Catholic and 15 to 25 percent as evangelical Christian. The Baháʼí Faith community of Panama is estimated at 2.00% of the national population, or about 60,000 including about 10% of the Guaymí population; the Baháʼís maintain one of the world's eight Baháʼí Houses of Worship in Panama.

See also

• List of Panamanians
• Panama
• Ethnic groups in Central America
• Criollo people
• Panamanian Americans
• Hispanics

External links

• Family life in Panama