Preliminary Results of the Panama 2010 Census
By Juan Carlos Martinez
Preliminary information issued on May 22 by the “Contraloría General” indicates that there are 3,186,162 inhabitants in the Republic of Panama as of May 16th, 2010. This preliminary figure is well below the projection of 3.5 million.
A few days later the “Contraloría” issued more updated data indicating that there are actually 3,322,576 inhabitants of which 1,672,568 are men and 1,650,008 are women and there are 1,056,208 housing units. This census was for population and Housing and takes place every 10 years.
The previous Panama census took place in 2000 and revealed a total population of 2,839,177 versus the 2010 total of 3,322,576. This was less of an increase than expected. Predictably the most densely populated province is Panama with 1,63,913 inhabitants, followed very far behind by Chiriqui with 409,821. The province of Panama has roughly four times more inhabitants that Chiriqui, the second most population dense province.
The census that took place was a door to door interview and took place in all the provinces. The preliminary data indicates inhabitants and housing units per province as follows:
HOUSING UNITS TOTAL MEN WOMEN
1,056,208 3,322,576 1,672,568 1,650,008
BOCAS DEL TORO
28,948 121,952 63,088 58,864
COCLÉ
72,840 228,676 116,927 111,749
COLÓN
73,445 232,748 117,721 115,027
CHIRIQUÍ
134,033 409,821 208,186 201,635
DARIÉN
15,310 46,951 25,764 21,187
HERRERA
39,861 107,911 54,447 53,464
LOS SANTOS
38,999 88,487 45,170 43,317
PANAMÁ
537,666 1,663,913 826,933 836,980
VERAGUAS
74,092 226,641 118,027 108,614
COMARCA KUNA YALA
5,662 31,577 14,981 16,596
COMARCA EMBERÁ
2,411 9,544 5,148 4,396
COMARCA NGÖBE BUGLÉ
32,941 154,355 76,176 78,179
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In order to understand the breakdown and the information that will be ready by December 2010 it is necessary to understand the political- geographical composition of Panama. The Republic of Panama as stated in the Constitution is separated into provinces which in the US would be equivalent to the individual states. There are nine provinces in Panama mentioned in the above chart. The three last areas are “comarcas” which are special areas similar to Indian reservations in the U.S. The three mentioned in this chart have the same stature as provinces.
Each province is then broken down into districts or municipalities of which there are 75 in the Republic of Panama. Then the districts or municipalities are separated into “corregimientos” which are a smaller political unit which may be equivalent to a borough or a township in the U.S. And there are 625 in the Republic of Panama. For easier reference the most common terms you will see used are province and district or municipality. Despite this political breakdown the political power the individual provinces have is not much. The Panamanian government is a central government and the seat of that government is in Panama City.
The government uses information provided by the census results to plan and make government policy. In many cases the information is also used to allocate budgets, identify populations and areas that need attention in terms of education, housing and social programs planned by the government. For example it is clear from the preliminary statistics in the census that the Ngobe-Bugle comarca is an area with a significantly bigger population than any other comarca. That added to the fact that the comarcas have high indicators of poverty, illiteracy, infant malnutrition, among others, then the government can plan social and economic aid programs for that specific area.
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