Interesting Information about Panama

Panama was settled by the Spanish in the 16th century.

In 1821 it broke with the Spanish Crown and joined Simón Bolívar's Republic of Gran Colombia. When this dissolved in 1830, Panama remained part of Colombia.

On 3 November 1903, Panama declared its independence from Colombia.

The Panamanian currency is the balboa, fixed at parity with the United States dollar. In practice, however, the country is dollarized; Panama mints its own coinage but uses US dollars for all its paper currency.

Panama's economy is predominantly service-based, heavily weighted toward banking, commerce, tourism, trading and industry due to its key geographic location.

The high levels of Panamanian trade are in large part due to the Colón Free Trade Zone, the largest free trade zone in the Western Hemisphere.

Panama fared decently in tourism receipts and foreign direct investment as a percent of GDP (the fourth-highest in Latin America in both categories) and internet penetration (eighth-highest rate in Latin America).

The culture, customs, and language of the Panamanians are predominantly Caribbean and Spanish. Ethnically, the majority of the population is mixed Amerindian, African, Spanish and Chinese descent.

The overwhelming majority of Panamanians are Roman Catholic, accounting for almost 80% of the population.

The country is also the smallest in Spanish-speaking Latin America in terms of population (est. 3,232,000).