Panama

Panama is a country located in Central America bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, between Colombia and Costa Rica, covering an area of approximately 75,420 square kilometers. As of 2025, Panama has a population of about 4.54 million, with Spanish as the official language alongside numerous indigenous languages and Panamanian English Creole. The interior of the country is mostly steep, rugged mountains with dissected upland plains, while coastal plains feature rolling hills, and a tropical maritime climate prevails with a prolonged rainy season from May to January. Panama City serves as the capital, and the government operates as a presidential republic.

Panama has an upper-middle-income economy with a GDP of $86.26 billion and a GDP per capita of $36,400, driven by construction, brewing, cement and other construction materials, and sugar milling. Key agricultural products include sugarcane, rice, bananas, oranges, oil palm fruit, chicken, plantains, maize, milk, and pineapples, while natural resources include copper, mahogany forests, shrimp, and hydropower. The unemployment rate is 8.4% as of 2025, with a life expectancy of 79.8 years. The Panama Canal and its expansion fuel broader infrastructure investment, and the services sector dominates the economy, though the country has historically faced money-laundering and illegal drug trafficking challenges.