In mid-1987, Panama's population was around at 2.3 million, when 40 % of the population was under 15 years of age. This high proportion suggested continued pressure on the educational system to offer instruction and on the economy to create jobs in the next two decades. Population had increased more than 600 % since the nation's first census in 1911. The annual rate of increase ranged from less than 0.5 % in the economically depressed 1920s to more than 3 % in the decade from 1910 to 1920 and in the 1960s. Demographers projected an annual growth rate of 2.2 % in the 1980s, declining to 1.9 % by 1990-95. s

Panama has a population of 2,845,647 (2001 estimate), up from 2.4 million in 1990. The population is concentrated heavily along the Panama Canal and in the cities on either end of the passage. It is a highly various society, descended from native people and immigrants over thousands of years. In the 16th century, when the Spaniards came to the isthmus, it was occupied by Kuna Guaymí, Chocó, and other American Indian groups. Mestizos resulted from miscegenation between the Spanish and the Indians. During colonial times people from Africa were brought to the isthmus as slaves, and still other mixed ethnic types developed as the Africans entered the society. During the 19th century, with the construction of the Panama City–Colón railroad, new groups arrived—North Americans, French, and Chinese. Large numbers of West Indians came to Panama as labourers during the construction of the canal, and additional U.S. nationals, Spaniards, Italians, and Greeks also arrived.