Panama City - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the relative size of the expatriate community? How would you describe overall morale among expatriates?
Large. The government response to the pandemic, with lockdowns and strict restrictions on mobility, took a severe toll on the expat morale. Also, the economic recovery is very slow, which translates into even fewer amenities available, and things to do. - Dec 2021
Large American expat. - Oct 2018
LARGE expat group and mostly happy. - Sep 2018
Large. Morale is bad to OK, but not great. - May 2017
Expatriate community from all over the world is LARGE. Morale is good. - Mar 2017
The expat community is large in Panama -- people from all over. The U.S. Embassy is medium-sized, and morale is low to good. - Oct 2015
Size = Big. Panama is oversold but morale is okay to good. - Jun 2015
Panama is a medium sized post and growing. Morale is low to medium. It is not that Panama is a terrible place and there are cetainly worse places in the world to be stationed, but Panama is unfairly listed as a zero differential post and it isn't nearly as nice here as real differential posts such as London or Sydney. The weather is hot and humid year round, there are frequent utility outages, internet connectivity is spotty, customer service is one of the worst in the region, traffic is terrible and service is very slow. Panama is a transportation hub but prices are exorbitant causing travel to escape, especially for families, cost prohibitive. Morale is very low for those who don't speak Spanish. - May 2015
Huge. Morale seems ok to good. - Sep 2014
Very high. - Jul 2014
Very large. Medium morale. It's not a terrible place, but you start to get sick of the inconveniences after a while (water and electricity randomly shutting off for days, random road closures with no warning, horrible roads with terrible drivers and constant traffic at all times of the day, poorly constructed housing that is constantly needing repairs, the worst customer service I've ever encountered anywhere, etc). - Mar 2014
Very, very, large. I often feel like I never see Panamanians. - Jan 2013
The UN is headquartered here for the Americas so there is a wide variety of expats. - Sep 2011
Large. There are lots of retirees out by Volcan, in the west by Costa Rica. - Apr 2010
decent size can find someone if you want to, but can also go for days without seeing anyone - Dec 2009
Huge, especially in the old canal zone. Lots of Expats walking their dogs. - May 2008
Large business population. There seems to be a huge push by the Panamanians to attract retirees to move to Panama but I worry about what these people will do when they confront the horrible traffic and difficulty getting anything done in Panama. - Apr 2008
