Panama

Abstract

Poverty in Panama decreased from 16.8% in 2016 to 15.0% in 2019, lower than the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) average for 2020 (26.3%). Extreme poverty decreased in that period from 7.4% to 6.8% and remains below the LAC average (8.7% in 2020). The Gini index decreased from 50.4 in 2016 to 49.8 in 2019, remaining above the LAC average (45.3 in 2019). Regarding environmental indicators, in 2019, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita were 4.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (t CO2e), lower than the averages for LAC (6.3) and countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (9.1). That year, the share of the population exposed to air pollution levels that pose risks to human health (PM2.5 at more than 10 µg/m3) was 99.8%, higher than 95.4% for LAC and 61.0% for the OECD. The marine protected area of Panama accounted for 26.8% of its territorial waters in 2021, well above 7.3% for LAC and 18.6% for the OECD. On the fiscal side, environmentally related tax revenue was 0.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, below LAC (1.0%) and the OECD (2.1%). Total tax revenue as a percentage of GDP (13.7%) remained lower than the averages for LAC (21.9%) and the OECD (33.5%).