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Panama SOCIETY
Population: In mid-1987 population estimated at 2.3
million; rate of annual growth calculated at about 2.2 percent in
the 1980s.
Education and Literacy: Compulsory attendance to age
fifteen or completion of six-year primary level. Education free at
public primary, secondary, and high schools; nominal tuition at
University of Panama. About 87 percent of population over age 10
literate.
Health: Although high proportion of medical facilities
and personnel located in major urban areas, most people had ready
access to medical care of some kind, and extension of modern
medical facilities to rural areas continued in late 1980s. Life
expectancy at birth in 1985 seventy-one years.
Language: Spanish the official language and mother tongue
of over 87 percent of the people. Antilleans--about 8 percent of
the population--primarily spoke English, and Indians--about 5
percent--spoke their own tongues, but with a growing number
adopting Spanish as second language.
Ethnic Groups: Society composed of three principal
groups: Spanish-speaking mestizos, representing the vast majority
of inhabitants; English-speaking Antillean blacks, constituting
approximately 8 percent of the population; and tribal Indians,
making up about 5 percent of the population. Mestizos originally
identified as people of mixed Indian-Spanish heritage, but term now
refers to any racial mixture where the individual conforms to the
norms of Hispanic culture. Also some unmixed Caucasians.
Religion: Overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. Ratio of priests
to population quite low, and relatively few Panamanians enter
priesthood. Antilleans predominantly Protestant.
Data as of December 1987
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