Central America.

GMT - 5.

75,517 sq km (29,157 sq miles).

3.2 million (UN estimate 2006).

42.3 per sq km.

Panama City. Population: 827,828 (2005).

Panama forms the land link between the North and South American continents. It borders Colombia to the east, Costa Rica to the west, and the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean to the north and south. The country forms an S-shaped isthmus, which runs east–west over a total length of 772km (480 miles) and is 60 to 177km (37 to 110 miles) wide. The landscape is mountainous with lowlands on both coastlines cut by streams, wooded slopes and a wide area of savannah-covered plains and rolling hills called El Interior between the Azuero peninsula and the Central Mountains. The Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean are linked by the man-made Panama Canal, cut into a gap between the Cordillera de Talamanca and the San Blas mountain range and stretching for over 65km (40 miles); the length of the canal is often referred to as 80km (50 miles) as this is the distance between deep-water points of entry. Only about a quarter of the country is inhabited. The majority of the population live either around the canal and main cities of Panama City and Colón (the two cities which control the entrance and exit of the canal) or in the Pacific lowlands and the adjacent mountains.

Republic. Gained independence from Colombia in 1903.

President Ricardo Martinelli since 2009.

In May 2004, Martin Torrijos (son of the former military leader Omar Torrijos who had been instrumental in negotiating the 1977 treaty with the US to handover the Panama Canal) defeated ex-president Guillermo Endara in the presidential elections. Torrijos took office in September that year and pledged to pursue a free trade agreement with the USA, which he secured in December 2006. In October 2006, Panamanians voted in a referendum to expand the canal. The project which will begin in 2008 and is due to be completed by 2014. The canal enjoyed its busiest year ever in 2006-7, with transits up 3.7% to a record 14,721.

The official language is Spanish, but English is widely spoken.

Almost all Christian; 86% Roman Catholic.

120 volts AC, 60Hz. Plugs are the flat two-pin American type.

Handshaking is the normal form of greeting and dress is generally casual. The culture is a vibrant mixture of American and Spanish lifestyles. The Mestizo majority, which is largely rural, shares many of the characteristics of Mestizo culture found throughout Central America. Only three indigenous tribes have retained their individuality and traditional lifestyles as a result of withdrawing into virtually inaccessible areas.