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Indigenous peoples of Panama

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Embera girl, Darién Province, 2006
A Guna woman in Guna Yala
Guna house in Guna Yala, 2007

The indigenous peoples of Panama, also known as Native Panamanians, are the original inhabitants of Panama, is the Native peoples whose history in the territory of today's Panama predates Spanish colonization. As of the 2010 census, Indigenous peoples constitute 12.3% of Panama’s population of 3.4 million, totaling just over 418,000 individuals. The Ngäbe and Buglé comprise half of the Indigenous peoples of Panama.[1]

Many of the Indigenous Peoples live on comarca indígenas,[2] which are administrative regions for areas with substantial Indigenous populations. Three comarcas (Comarca Emberá-Wounaan, Guna Yala, Ngäbe-Buglé) exist as equivalent to a province, with two smaller comarcas (Guna de Madugandí and Guna de Wargandí) subordinate to a province and considered equivalent to a corregimiento (municipality).

Indigenous groups

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Population

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Indigenous population of Panama according to ethnic group[3]
Ethnic
group 		Census 1990 Census 2000 Census 2010 Census 2023
Number % Number % Number % Number %
Ngäbe (Guaymi) 123,626 63.6 169,130 59.3 260,058 62.3 444,878 63.7
Buglé (Bokota) 3,784 1.9 18,724 6.6 26,871 6.4 24,488 3.5
Guna 47,298 24.3 61,707 21.6 80,526 19.3 112,319 16.1
Emberá 14,659 7.5 22,485 7.9 31,284 7.5 51,657 7.4
Wounaan 2,605 1.3 6,882 2.4 7,279 1.7 10,634 1.5
Teribe/Naso 2,194 1.1 3,305 1.2 4,046 1.0 6,899 1.0
Bribri 2,521 0.9 1,068 0.3 799 0.1
Other 103 0.1 460 0.1 45,498 6.5
Not declared 477 0.2 5,967 1.4 975 0.1

Languages

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Some native peoples speak Spanish, while many more retain their traditional languages. According to the 2000 census, the following indigenous languages are spoken in Panama:

Notes

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  1. ^ a b "Panama History: Indigenous People." Archived 2010-11-25 at the Wayback Machine Panama Experts. (retrieved 23 Feb 2011)
  2. ^ a b "Indigenous Peoples in Panama." Archived 2011-03-02 at the Wayback Machine International Work Group for Indian Affairs. (retrieved 23 Feb 2011)
  3. ^ https://www.inec.gob.pa Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Censo (INEC)

See also

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Indigenous peoples of Panama.
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