For other places with the same name, see Panama (disambiguation).

Location
Flag
Quick Facts
Capital	Panama City
Government	Constitutional Democracy
Currency	Panamanian Balboa (PAB) US Dollar (USD)
Area	78,200 km2
Population	3,039,150 (July 2006 est.)
Language	Spanish (official), English
Religion	Roman Catholic 85% Protestant 15%
Electricity	120V/60Hz
Calling Code	+507
Internet TLD	.pa
Time Zone	UTC-5

Panama is a country in Central America with coastlines on both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, with Colombia (and South America) to the southeast and Costa Rica (and North America) to the northwest. It's strategically located on the isthmus that forms the land bridge connecting North and South America. It controls the Panama Canal that links the North Atlantic Ocean via Caribbean Sea with North Pacific Ocean, one of the most important shipping routes in the world.