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Updates: 

When the comarca of Ngöbe Buglé was created in 1997, the legislators didn't check the spelling carefully enough. In the latest census, the comarca's name is given as Ngäbe Buglé. According to source [4], an article published on 2009-05-16 called attention to the error, saying "The people whose name was changed: ... those who reviewed the law creating the comarca, all Spanish speakers, did not know the Ngabe language. They replaced the 'a' with an 'o'. A correction is now in the hands of the Executive." (My translation and paraphrase.) The letter in controversy is supposed to represent a vowel that is said to sound like English "aw". That sound doesn't occur in Spanish, and neither 'ä' nor 'ö' is found in the Spanish alphabet.

Update 1 to the U.S. standard "Geopolitical Entities and Codes" is dated 2010-08-20. It assigns FIPS codes to two new comarcas, and changes the name of San Blas to Kuna Yala.

Newsletter II-2, an update to the ISO 3166-2 standard, is dated 2010-06-30. It assigns ISO codes to three comarcas. In agreement with the PCGN, it doesn't recognize two of the comarcas as being on the same administrative level as the provinces.

Recently, several new comarcas have been created in Panama. Also, San Blas comarca, which has been a division of Panama since 1938, is now most often called Kuna Yala. The main table shows the divisions of Panama as listed in the 2000 census returns, modified by the addition of Kuna de Wargandí. The PCGN  (Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use) believes that Kuna de Madungandí and Kuna de Wargandí do not have provincial status.

Country overview: 

Short name	PANAMA
ISO code	PA
FIPS code	PM
Language	Spanish (es)
Time zone	-5
Capital	Panama City

 

Panama was a department of Colombia in 1900. With the encouragement of the United States, Panama declared its independence from Colombia on 1903-11-03. The United States then acquired control of the Canal Zone from it. In 1979, the Canal Zone was restored to Panama.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Panama
2. Dutch: Panama, Republiek Panama (formal)
3. English: Republic of Panama (formal)
4. Finnish: Panama
5. French: Panama m
6. German: Panamá, Panama n
7. Italian: Panamá m
8. Norwegian: Panama, Republikken Panama (formal)
9. Portuguese: Panamá, República f do Panamá m (formal)
10. Russian: Республика Панама (formal)
11. Spanish: Panamá, República f de Panamá m (formal)
12. Swedish: Panama
13. Turkish: Panama Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

There are several theories about the origin of the name Panama. The best known is that the Spanish explorers found a village on the beach where Panama City now stands. The village was populated by fishermen, and its name, Panama, meant "many fish". Another version is that the name designated a species of tree; or that it meant "many butterflies". Lately, a Kuna chief has asserted that the name came from pannaba, a Kuna word for "very far".

Primary subdivisions: 

Panama is divided into nine provincias (provinces) and five comarcas.

Division	Typ	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Bocas del Toro	p	PA.BC	1	PM01	89,269	4,601	1,777	Bocas del Toro
Chiriquí	p	PA.CH	4	PM02	368,790	6,477	2,501	David
Coclé	p	PA.CC	2	PM03	202,461	4,927	1,902	Penonomé
Colón	p	PA.CL	3	PM04	204,208	4,891	1,888	Colón
Darién	p	PA.DR	5	PM05	40,284	11,091	4,282	La Palma
Emberá	c	PA.EM	EM	PM11	8,246	4,398	1,698	Cirilo Guainora
Herrera	p	PA.HE	6	PM06	102,465	2,341	904	Chitré
Kuna de Madungandí	c	PA.KM			3,305	2,319	895
Kuna de Wargandí	c	PA.KW				775	299
Kuna Yala	c	PA.SB	KY	PM09	32,446	2,393	924	Narganá
Los Santos	p	PA.LS	7	PM07	83,495	3,805	1,469	Las Tablas
Ngäbe Buglé	c	PA.NB	NB	PM12	110,080	6,673	2,577	Chichica
Panamá	p	PA.PN	8	PM08	1,385,052	9,633	3,719	Panamá
Veraguas	p	PA.VR	9	PM10	209,076	10,677	4,122	Santiago (de Veraguas)
14 divisions					2,839,177	75,001	28,957
Typ: p = province, c = comarca. HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 2000-05-14 census.

Further subdivisions:

See the Districts of Panama page.

The provinces of Panama are divided into municipal districts, which are further subdivided into corregimientos.

Territorial extent: 

Before the Canal Zone was returned, Colón province had an exclave within the Canal Zone, containing the city of Colón.
If this Map  and this Map  are correct, Emberá has two separate sections, one of which is completely surrounded by Darién.
If this Map  is correct, Ngäbe Buglé has at least two exclaves within Chiriquí and two within Veraguas.

Origins of names: 

1. Bocas del Toro: Spanish for "mouths of the bull"
2. Colón: named for Christopher Columbus (Spanish: Cristóbal Colón)
3. Kuna Yala: Kuna for "land of the Kuna people"
4. Los Santos: Spanish for "the saints"

Change history: 

There have been numerous minor boundary adjustments.

1. 1904-02-26: Treaty of Hay and Bunau-Varilla took effect, by which the United States acquired the "use, occupation, and control" of the Canal Zone.
2. 1922: Darién province split from Panamá.
3. ~1925: Capital of Canal Zone moved from Ancón to Balboa Heights (a district in the city of Balboa).
4. ~1930: Herrera province split from Los Santos.
5. 1938: San Blas comarca (or intendency) formed from parts of Colón and Panamá.
6. 1979-10-01: By the Panama Canal Treaty, the United States relinquished the Canal Zone. The zone (1,432 sq. km.) was split and annexed to Colón and Panamá provinces. At this time, Panama was divided as shown here.

Province	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Bocas del Toro	PA.BT	1	PM01	92,731	8,945	3,454	Bocas del Toro
Chiriquí	PA.CQ	4	PM02	368,023	8,653	3,341	David
Coclé	PA.CC	2	PM03	172,165	4,927	1,902	Penonomé
Colón	PA.CL	3	PM04	167,873	4,890	1,888	Colón
Darién	PA.DA	5	PM05	43,032	16,671	6,437	La Palma
Herrera	PA.HE	6	PM06	93,360	2,341	904	Chitré
Los Santos	PA.LS	7	PM07	76,604	3,806	1,469	Las Tablas
Panamá	PA.PA	8	PM08	1,064,221	11,887	4,590	Panama City
San Blas	PA.SB	0	PM09	34,134	2,357	910	El Porvenir
Veraguas	PA.VE	9	PM10	202,904	11,239	4,340	Santiago
10 divisions				2,315,047	75,716	29,235
Provinces: San Blas is a comarca or intendencia (intendency). abv: Two-letter code for international compatibility (defined by the author). ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 1990 census (preliminary returns)

1. 1996-01-12: Kuna de Madungandí comarca split from Panamá province by Law 24.
2. 1997-03-07: Ngöbe-Buglé comarca formed from parts of Bocas del Toro, Chiriquí, and Veraguas provinces by Law 10.
3. 1998-11-08: Emberá comarca split from Darién province by Law 22.
4. 2000-07-26: Kuna de Wargandí comarca split from Darién by Law 34.
5. ~2010: Name of Ngöbe Buglé changed to Ngäbe Buglé.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Emberá: Emberá-Wounaan (variant)
2. Kuna Yala: Dulenega (variant native name); San Blas (obsolete)
3. Ngäbe Buglé: Ngöbe Buglé (obsolete)

Population history:

Province	1911	1920	1930	1940	1950-12-10	1960-12-11	1970-05-10	1980-05-02	1990-05-13	2000-05-14
Bocas del Toro	22,732	27,239	15,851	16,523	22,392	32,600	43,531	53,487	74,139	89,269
Chiriquí	63,364	76,470	76,918	111,206	138,136	188,350	236,154	287,350	322,130	368,790
Coclé	35,011	45,151	48,244	55,737	73,103	93,156	118,003	140,903	173,190	202,461
Colón	32,092	58,250	57,161	78,119	90,144	105,416	109,605	133,833	168,294	204,208
Darién	8,992	10,728	13,391	14,930	14,660	19,715	22,685	26,524	35,862	40,284
Emberá									7,970	8,246
Herrera	23,007	28,984	31,030	38,118	50,095	61,672	72,549	81,963	93,681	102,465
Kuna Yala							24,681	28,621	34,044	32,446
Los Santos	30,075	34,638	41,218	49,621	61,422	70,554	72,380	70,261	76,947	83,495
Ngäbe Buglé									72,450	110,080
Panamá	61,855	98,035	114,103	173,328	248,335	372,393	576,645	809,100	1,072,127	1,388,357
Veraguas	59,614	66,603	69,543	84,994	106,998	131,685	151,849	173,245	198,495	209,076
Totals	336,742	446,098	467,459	622,576	805,285	1,075,541	1,428,082	1,805,287	2,329,329	2,839,177

 

Column headings are dates of censuses. Kuna Yala figures for 1940-1960 are included in Colón. The source doesn't explain why a population is given for Ngäbe Buglé in 1990, before it was created; nor whether the population of Canal Zone is included in the figures for 1911-1970.

Sources: 

1. [1] Historical population data come from Contraloría General de la República de Panamá .
2. [2] La Prensa  reported on 2002-01-20 that there were moves under way to split a new province of Panamá Oeste (West Panama) from the existing Panamá province, and to split a new comarca from Bocas del Toro province for the benefit of the Naso-teribe ethnic group.
3. [3] Library of Congress country study  (retrieved 1999).
4. [4] La Estrella  monthly (in Spanish, retrieved 2011-01-20).