Panama Is Attracting More and More Expats – But How Good Is Life There Really?

Panama continues to rank highly among people considering emigration. Interest from the United States in particular appears to be growing. Recent media coverage tells of Americans giving up their previous lives and moving to Panama. At the same time, official figures show that there is more behind this impression than individual emigration stories.

Add to that another accolade: in InterNations' current Expat Insider 2026 survey, Panama ranks first among the most popular countries for expats for the third year in a row.

But how many foreigners actually live in Panama? And is the country really as attractive as rankings and emigration stories suggest?

From Atlanta to Panama City

A recent example comes from Business Insider. The magazine reports on 36-year-old American Chrysten Crockett, who left Atlanta and now lives in Panama City. She works location-independently, running her own content marketing agency.

Crockett cites, among other things, the cost of living, the sense of community, safety, and the general atmosphere as reasons for her move. Her cost comparison is particularly interesting: for her apartment in what she describes as a high-priced building in Panama City, she pays around $2,050 a month. A comparable apartment in Atlanta, in her assessment, would cost considerably more.

Forbes also picked up the topic in late August, reporting on growing interest in Panama as a place to live and invest. Particularly notable: Americans are now the third-largest nationality among approved residency permits in Panama.

A look at the official statistics at least confirms this order of magnitude.

How many Americans actually live in Panama?

According to Panama's 2023 census, 8,511 people born in the United States were living in Panama.

For comparison:

One important caveat applies to these figures: the census distinguishes by country of birth, not by current nationality. The numbers should therefore not simply be equated with the number of American, German, or Swiss citizens living in Panama.

Even so, they give a good sense of the orders of magnitude involved. What stands out in particular is how large the American group already is: by this definition, almost seven times as many people born in the United States live in Panama as people from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland combined.

Immigration appears to have increased

The census becomes even more interesting when you look at when people from abroad actually arrived in Panama.

For people whose previous residence was in the United States, the following figures were recorded for the different periods:

The final period is particularly notable because it is considerably shorter than the two preceding five-year periods.

A similar pattern emerges for Canada and the German-speaking countries. For Germany, Austria, and Switzerland combined, the figures for the same periods look as follows:

This statistic should not be overinterpreted either. "Previous residence: United States" does not automatically mean American nationality. It can, for example, also include Panamanians who returned from the United States.

Still, the figures suggest that immigration from North America, as well as from the German-speaking countries, gained significance in the years leading up to the census.

Current residency figures are notable too

The census dates from 2023. More recent figures from Panama's Servicio Nacional de Migración, however, show that interest has not faded.

In 2025, 3,128 residency permits were approved for Americans. That put the United States in third place, behind Colombia and Venezuela.

For Germans, 313 residency permits were approved, for Swiss citizens 111, and for Austrians 27. Together, that amounts to 451 approvals for people from the three German-speaking countries within a single year:

These figures cannot simply be added to the census population. An approved residency permit does not necessarily mean that a person has permanently and newly moved to Panama. The statistics do show, though, that Panama continues to attract a substantial number of foreign applicants.

Panama ranks first for the third year running

This fits with the results of InterNations' current Expat Insider 2026 survey. Panama takes first place there for the third consecutive time.

The country performs particularly well in areas directly relevant to expats. Among other things, Panama ranks 1st for Personal Finance and Working Abroad, 2nd for Ease of Settling In and Expat Essentials, and 6th for quality of life.

87 percent of expats surveyed in Panama say they are satisfied with their life abroad. 90 percent consider their disposable household income sufficient for a comfortable life.

Housing results are also positive. 90 percent consider it easy to find housing in Panama, and 73 percent rate housing costs positively.

That does not mean, however, that Panama has been objectively declared the "best country in the world to emigrate to." The Expat Insider is an international survey of people who already live abroad. To a significant extent, it measures their personal perception and satisfaction.

That respondents do judge critically is shown by another result: Panama ranks last among the countries surveyed for road infrastructure.

My experience: Panama is not a cheap country

Based on my own experience, I can relate to many of the positive assessments of Panama. Still, there is one point I would phrase differently than some emigration reports suggest:

To me, Panama is not a cheap country.

If you want to live in a good area of Panama City, you pay corresponding prices. Good private medical care costs money. For legal or administrative matters, it can be worthwhile or even necessary to hire a lawyer. For tax questions, you may need an advisor. Other services that make life easier also have to be paid for.

Anyone arriving in Panama expecting to maintain a high standard of living for very little money may therefore be disappointed.

That does not mean, however, that I consider Panama expensive in a negative sense. For me, the decisive difference lies elsewhere.

You can buy yourself a share of quality of life here

My personal experience after moving from Germany to Panama is this: in Panama, money can buy you a considerable amount of quality of life.

I can choose a neighborhood where I feel comfortable. I can make use of private services. If I get stuck on legal or administrative matters, I can hire someone to handle them. Much of it can be organized pragmatically this way.

Of course, that only works if you have the corresponding financial means.

The decisive difference for me compared with Germany, however, is this: some things that affected my personal quality of life there could barely be influenced even with more money.

That is why I now consider my quality of life in Panama to be significantly higher than it was previously in Germany. This is explicitly a personal assessment, not a universally valid judgment of either country.

An American could reach a completely different conclusion. Anyone comparing Atlanta, Miami, or New York with Panama City starts from entirely different conditions than someone coming from Germany. Housing costs, healthcare, taxes, social security, and previous standard of living differ considerably.

Not everything is easier

Another experience has also become part of what I now consider a realistic picture of emigrating to Panama: social and cultural integration is more difficult than I originally expected.

The cultural differences between Germany and Panama are considerable. This is noticeable not only in personal interactions, but also in communication, working methods, and administrative processes.

Many things work differently than what one is used to in Germany. That does not automatically mean better or worse. But it requires time, patience, and a willingness to adjust one's own expectations.

Especially at the beginning, it is easy to make the mistake of applying German standards to Panama. Over time, one better understands that certain things here are simply organized differently, and that communication sometimes follows different rules.

For this reason too, a successful emigration should not be measured solely by climate, real estate prices, or taxes. What ultimately matters is whether you can come to terms with the everyday life and culture of the new country.

So is Panama really the best country for expats?

In my view, there is no universally valid answer to this question.

The current figures do show, however, that interest in Panama is real. Thousands of Americans already live here, the number of residency approvals is substantial, and people from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland also continue to come to Panama.

The fact that Panama has simultaneously won the Expat Insider for the third time in a row fits this development.

I personally can understand why many expats rate the country positively. Climate, nature, international outlook, and the many possibilities for shaping one's own life individually contribute, in my view, to a high quality of life.

But Panama is not a paradise that automatically solves all problems. You have to adapt to considerable cultural differences, organize a lot yourself — and, in my view, you need sufficient financial means for a high standard of living.

Perhaps this is exactly one of Panama's distinctive features: you do not necessarily get a great deal organized for you by the state. But if you have the necessary means, you can organize your own life to a remarkably high degree.

For me personally, this model currently works better than the life I most recently led in Germany. For someone else, the calculation could look completely different.

A look into the future

For all my personal satisfaction with my life in Panama, one other question remains open for me. Many expats who come to Panama belong to the financially better-off segment of society. They buy or rent apartments in good areas, use private services, and can afford a standard of living that has little to do with the everyday life of large parts of the Panamanian population.

These differences are not new, and of course not an exclusively Panamanian phenomenon either. Still, a growing number of wealthy foreigners could make such differences more visible — for example in real estate prices, rents, or, more generally, in the question of who can still afford certain areas and lifestyles.

I cannot judge what social consequences this will have in the long run. So far, I experience Panama as a remarkably peaceful country. At the same time, I have personally noticed, from time to time recently, a certain dissatisfaction and frustration among parts of the local population. This is explicitly not a statistically documented trend, but merely my subjective impression from everyday life. Anyone who knows my book knows that I pay particular attention to such shifts in the social climate. My perception may be accurate — but it could just as easily be misleading.

That is precisely why I find the further development interesting: what happens when more and more people with comparatively high purchasing power come to Panama, while a large part of the local population has considerably fewer financial means? Does this remain largely free of conflict, with both sides benefiting from the development — or do stronger social tensions eventually emerge from it?

There is also a second, even bigger unknown. The economic and political world is currently changing quickly. One crisis follows another, and nobody knows whether this will develop into a larger global economic crisis in the coming years, or whether we may already be at the beginning of such a development.

This is also why, for me, the more interesting question is no longer just whether Panama is a good country to emigrate to today. What will matter is how robust the country proves to be under more difficult external conditions. How would Panama cope with a severe international economic crisis? How stable would the economy, the labor market, the real estate market, and the social climate remain? And how would Panama develop in comparison with Germany and Europe, the United States, or other regions of the world?

I have no answer to that today. But perhaps that is exactly one of the most interesting questions for the coming years. After all, emigrating is not just a decision about where you like it best today. It is also a bet on where you want to live in five, ten, or twenty years.

Sources and further information

INEC Panamá – Censo 2023 – population and migration data.

INEC Panamá – Censo 2023, Cuadro 5 – census table by country of birth used in this article.

INEC Panamá – Censo 2023, Cuadro 6 – table on previous residence and period of arrival used in this article.

Servicio Nacional de Migración – statistics – approved residency permits by nationality.

Servicio Nacional de Migración – Permisos de Residencia 2025 – figures on approved residency permits for 2025 used in this article.

InterNations – Expat Insider 2026: Panama – current expat ranking.

Forbes – Now Is The Time To Move To, Or Invest In, Panama – August 27, 2026.

Business Insider – I booked a $200 flight to Panama on a whim, then decided to move there – Chrysten Crockett's personal emigration story.