South America
To which language should you translate to localize in Panama?
Introduction
Language
Official language
Spanish
T-index
0.061%
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.
Most studied languages
English
English
High proficiency (EF) – 75 of 112 countries/regions in the world- 16/20 position in Latin America.
Demography
Capital: Panama City
Currency: United States Dollar, Panamanian balboa
Population: 4,35 m
Population density: 58/km2
Economy
GDP: 63.61 billion USD (2021)
GDP per capita: 14,617.6 USD (2021)
Exports: $4.04 billion (2020)
Statistics
Internet users: 66.6% penetration, 2.94 million
Unemployment rate: 10.3% (2021)
Urbanisation: 67.71% (2020)
Literacy: 96 % (2019)
Conventions
Numbering system
Arabic numerals and comma as decimal separator
Date format: yyyy-mm-dd / dd-mm-yyyy
Time: 24h time system
Country code: 00507
Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal
Facts and data
Economy
Imports
$30.5 billion (2020). Passenger and Cargo Ships ($7.46B), Refined Petroleum ($4.78B), Crude Petroleum ($3.45B), Packaged Medicaments ($911M), and Boat Propellers ($534M), importing mostly from China ($8.8B), United States ($5.43B), Japan ($4.6B), Ecuador ($2.43B), and Colombia ($1.43B).
Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of age)
• 46% have an account with a financial institution
• 8% have a credit card
• 3.5% have a mobile money account
• 9.3% make online purchases
Ease of doing business
Ease of conducting business is medium (rated 66.6 out of 100). Ranked 7th out of 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries. Ranked 86th out of 190 countries worldwide (2022, World Bank).
Exports
$4.04 billion (2020). Copper Ore ($1.05B), Bananas ($370M), Packaged Medicaments ($333M), Passenger and Cargo Ships ($223M), and Refined Petroleum ($187M), exporting mostly to Guatemala ($613M), China ($405M), Netherlands ($299M), South Korea ($249M), and United States ($239M).
Main local online stores
MercadoLibre, eBay and Amazon, Netshoes, Alibaba, Garbarino.com, Musimundo.com, Frávega, Apple and Cencosud
Economic freedom
‘Mostly free’ (rated 50.1 out of 100). Ranked 11th out of 32 Latin American countries. Ranked 56th out of 186 countries worldwide (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).
Global Innovation Index
Ranked 10th out of 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries, and 81st out of 132 worldwide.
The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.
Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal
Service imports (2018)
Source: OEC
Service exports (2018)
Source: OEC
Most complex products by PCI
Product Complexity Index measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters
Source: OEC
Most specialised products by RCA Index
Specialisation is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage, an index that takes the ratio between Panama observed and expected exports in each product
Source: OEC
Export Opportunities by Relatedness
Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product, the barchart show only products that Panama is not specialized in
Source: OEC
T-index
Reach most of the online purchasing power
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.
Try it nowMedia
Media language Spanish
Information channels
The Grupo Clarin and La Nacion conglomerates are the main players in the national media. The top free-to-air TV networks – Telefe, America, El Nueve and El Trece – are privately owned. Public broadcasting has a minor role. Clarin and La Nacion are the leading national newspapers. The government does not routinely block or filter online content, says Freedom House.
The press
La Prensa – daily broadsheet
El Siglo – daily tabloid
La Critica Libre – daily tabloid
El Panama America – daily
La Estrella de Panama – daily
Newsroom Panama – online news in English
Television
Telemetro – commercial
RPC – commercial
Televisora Nacional (TVN) – commercial
FETV – educational, run as a charitable foundation
Radio
RPC Radio – commercial, news, talk
Super Q – commercial FM
Omega Stereo – commercial FM
Media data source: BBC
Internet Data
Internet users
66.6% penetration, 2.94 million
Share of web traffic by device
57.33% mobile phones, 40.43% computers (laptops and desktops), 2.12% tablet devices, and 0.12% other devices
Median speed of mobile Internet connection
15.95 Mbps
Median speed of fixed Internet connection
93.64 Mbps
Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 119.5%
Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 79.5%
Most popular web search engines
Google (95.84%%), Bing (3.2%%), Yahoo (0.35%%), DuckduckGo (0.25%), Ecosia (0.22%), Yandex Ru (0.06%)
Most used social media
Facebook (48.97%), Instagram (33.77%), Pinterest (7.51%), Twitter (2.83%), YouTube (2.22%), Reddit (0.32%)
Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter
Social statistics
Life expectancy
77 yrs (2020)
Average age of the population
29.7 yrs (2020)
Healthcare expenditure
7.58% of GDP
Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF
Tertiary education in Panama
Source: UNESCO
Tertiary education in Panama, by sex
Source: UNESCO
The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com
Languages research
Languages spoken in Panama
The language research that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com
Photo credit: Jacqueline Brandwayn, Unsplash