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Panama POPULATION
Unavailable
Figure 5. Population Density, 1980 Census
Unavailable
Figure 6. Estimated Population by Age and Sex, 1987
Regions of Settlement
Panama has no generally recognized group of geographic regions,
and no single set of names is in common use. One system often used
by Panamanian geographers, however, portrays the country as divided
into five regions that reflect population concentration and
economic development as well as geography.
Darién, the largest and most sparsely populated of the regions,
extends from the hinterlands of Panama City and Colón to the
Colombian border, comprising more than one-third of the national
territory
(see
fig. 5). In addition to the province of Darién, it
includes the Comarca de San Blas and the eastern part of Panamá
Province. Darién--a name that was once applied to the entire
isthmus--is a land of rain forest and swamp.
The Central Isthmus does not have precisely definable
boundaries. Geographically, it is the low saddle of land that
bisects the isthmus at the canal. It extends on the Pacific side
from the Darién as far west as the town of La Chorrera. On the
Atlantic, it includes small villages and clustered farms around
Gatun Lake. East of the canal it terminates gradually as the
population grows sparse, and the jungles and swamps of the Darién
region begin. More a concept than a region, the Central Isthmus,
with a width of about 100 kilometers, is the densely populated
historical transportation route between the Atlantic and the
Pacific and includes most of Colón Province.
Central Panama lies to the southwest of the canal and is made
up of all or most of the provinces of Veraguas, Coclé, Herrera, and
Los Santos. Located between the continental divide and the Pacific,
the area is sometimes referred to as the Central Provinces. The
sparsely populated Santa Fe District of Veraguas Province is
located across the continental divide on the Atlantic side,
however, and a frontier part of Coclé is also on the Atlantic side
of the divide.
The hills and lowlands of Central Panama, dotted with farms and
ranches, include most of the country's rural population. Its
heartland is a heavily populated rural arc that frames the Bahía de
Parita and includes most of the country's largest market towns,
including the provincial capitals of Penonomé, Santiago, Chitré,
and Las Tablas. This agriculturally productive area has a
relatively long dry season and is known as the dry zone of Panama.
The remaining part of the Pacific side of the divide is taken
up by Chiriquí Province. Some geographers regard it and Central
Panama as a single region. But, the lowlands of the two areas are
separated by the hills of the Península de Las Palmas, and the big
province of Chiriquí has sufficient individuality to warrant
consideration as a separate region. The second largest and second
most populous of the nine provinces, Chiriquí is to some extent a
territory of pioneers as well as one of considerable economic
importance. It is only in Chiriquí that the frontiers of settlement
have pushed up well into the interior highlands, and the population
has a particular sense of regional identity. A native of Chiriquí
can be expected to identify himself, above all, as a Chiricano.
Atlantic Panama includes all of Bocas del Toro Province, the
Caribbean coastal portions of Veraguas and Coclé, and the western
districts of Colón. It is home to a scant 5 percent of the
population, and its only important population concentrations are
near the Costa Rican border where banana plantations are located.
Data as of December 1987
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