Environment:
current issues: water pollution from agricultural runoff threatens
fishery resources; deforestation of tropical rain forest; land
degradation
natural hazards: NA
international agreements: party to - Biodiversity, Endangered Species,
Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer
Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Wetlands; signed, but
not ratified - Climate Change, Law of the Sea, Marine Life
Conservation, Tropical Timber 94
Note: strategic location on eastern end of isthmus forming land bridge
connecting North and South America; controls Panama Canal that links
North Atlantic Ocean via Caribbean Sea with North Pacific Ocean
@Panama:People
Population: 2,680,903 (July 1995 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 34% (female 439,491; male 458,817)
15-64 years: 61% (female 812,876; male 823,124)
65 years and over: 5% (female 74,672; male 71,923) (July 1995 est.)
Population growth rate: 1.9% (1995 est.)
Birth rate: 24.12 births/1,000 population (1995 est.)
Death rate: 4.79 deaths/1,000 population (1995 est.)
Net migration rate: -0.36 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 15.8 deaths/1,000 live births (1995 est.)