Islam by country · Americas
Islam in Panama: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Panama, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Panama in the interactive map
History of Islam in Panama
The Republic of Panama gained its independence from Columbia in 1903. It has an area of 75,420 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 5.6.8. The first Muslims in Panama were Chinese workers who were brought for building the Panama Canal between 1904 and 1914. They were then followed by Palestinians after the middle of the twentieth century. Thus, estimates for the Muslim population increased none in 1904, to twenty or 0.01% in 1911, to 500 or 0.04% in 1970 and 1,000 or 0.05% in 1980. According to LAPOP survey, the percentage of Muslims was 1.02% in 1991. But was estimated at 14,000 or 0.3% in 2020.
Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will increase by 0.05 of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to be reach 26,000 or 0.5% by 2050 and 43,000 or 0.7% by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Panama
The figures below are from the CoMPS historical dataset. Population values are expressed in thousands; 2100 is a modelled projection, not a present-day count.
| Year | Total population (thousands) | Muslim population (thousands) | Muslim share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 263.0 | 0.000 | 0.00% |
| 2000 | 2,972 | 23.78 | 0.80% |
| 2100 | 6,211 | 43.47 | 0.70% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.