Panama

  PANAMA

A. THE COUNTRY
The Republic of Panama is the narrowest point of the Central American
isthmus and is bisected by the Panama Canal.  The government is a stable
constitutional democracy and the infrastructures of the nation is one of
the most developed in Latin America.  But most of the wealth is
concentrated in the hands of a few with 40% living in poverty.  Due to
4% of the world’s trade passing through the Panama Canal, the economy is
service-based, and heavily weighted toward banking, commerce and
tourism. A porous border with Columbia means that drug cartels wield
considerable influence.

B. THE PEOPLE

The population is ~3,509,000 and the official language Spanish.
~66.6% are Spanish-speaking, ~10.9% Amerindian, ~9.37% Caribbean, ~6.5%
Asian, ~6.6% European/American.

C. RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY/PENTECOSTALISM

Panama is a secular state but Catholicism is recognized as the religion
of the majority.
~90.54% claim to be Christian, ~4.3% Non-religious, ~1.17%
Ethnoreligionist, ~1.1% Other, ~1.05% Baha’i, ~0.8% Buddhist, ~0.7%
Muslim, ~0.15% Jewish, ~0.015% Chinese, ~0.03% Hindu, ~0.01% Sikh.
In the Christian category:
~66.7% are Catholic, ~13.85% Protestant, ~7.28% Independent, ~0.74%
Anglican, ~0.04% Orthodox.
Evangelicals represent ~19.3% of the population.
Charismatics represent ~17.8% and of those ~15% are Pentecostals.
Other groups originating in Western society represent ~2.65% of the
population.

Donna Siemens

References:

Operation World, Jason Mandryk. Colorado Springs: Biblica Publishing, 2010.