Federal President (rotating): Ueli Maurer (until 1 Jan 2014)
President: Ricardo Martinelli
Population
7,996,026
3,559,408
Life Expectancy
82.280 years
78.130 years
Capital City
Bern
Panama
Largest city
Zurich (population: 341,730)
Panama (population: 408,168)
Human Development Index
0.955
0.832
GDP per capita
$54,600 US
$15,300 US
Literacy Rate
99%
91.9%
Corruption Perception Index
9
3.4
Percentage of Women in Parliament
27.2%
16.7%
Wealthiest Citizens
Ernesto Bertarelli ($8.2bn US)
NA
Unemployment Rate
2.900%
4.400%
Death Penalty
Abolished
Abolished
Political System
formally a confederation but similar in structure to a federal republic
constitutional democracy
Independence date
1 August 1291 (founding of the Swiss Confederation)
3 November 1903 (from Colombia; became independent from Spain 28 November 1821)
Religions
Roman Catholic 41.8%, Protestant 35.3%, Muslim 4.3%, Orthodox 1.8%, other Christian 0.4%, other 1%, unspecified 4.3%, none 11.1% (2000 census)
Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant 15%
Languages
German (official) 63.7%, French (official) 20.4%, Italian (official) 6.5%, Serbo-Croatian 1.5%, Albanian 1.3%, Portuguese 1.2%, Spanish 1.1%, English 1%, Romansch (official) 0.5%, other 2.8% (2000 census) note: German, French, Italian, and Romansch are all national and official languages
Spanish (official), English 14%; note - many Panamanians bilingual
