The development in this once unincorporated part of Northwest Florida was created by combining the settlements and communities of Floriopolis, Harrison, Millville, Park Resort, and St.

Additionally, since required meanders around land formations in a seaborne route to the canal added distance when starting at other ports, Panama City was the closest developed port in the US mainland to the Caribbean entrance of the Panama Canal.

The storm caused catastrophic damage to the city and surrounding communities, with winds of 160 mph (260 km/h) at landfall.

As of 2024, industrial employers in the Bay County area include Eastern Shipbuilding Group, L-3 Technologies, Oceaneering, Florida Power & Light, Trane, and Jensen-Group.

The 153rd Cavalry Regiment, part of the Florida Army National Guard, is headquartered in Panama City with units throughout the panhandle.

Panama City is also approximately 100 miles south of Fort Novosel, Alabama, home to the U.S. Army's Aviation Center of Excellence.

Pier Park, on the beach across the Hathaway Bridge spanning St. Andrews Bay, is a third local retail center.

Other retail areas in the Panama City Metro are the 15th Street Shopping Strip (A area between Harrison Ave/US Highway 231 and Beck Ave/US Bus 98/State Road 390), 23rd Street Shopping Strip, Downtown Panama City, Historic St. Andrews, and Millville Historic District.

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University has a satellite campus on Tyndall Air Force Base.

SR 77 leads north six miles (9.7 km) to the Panama City suburb of Lynn Haven.

US 231 begins its national journey northward in the city, leading northeast 83 miles (134 km) to Dothan, Alabama.

Until some point between 1955 and 1956 the Atlanta and St. Andrews Bay Railroad ran passenger trains from Panama City to Dothan, Alabama.

In 2020, ECP was ranked the fourth fastest growing airport in the U.S.[28] The Port of Panama City is on St. Andrews Bay.

The city has two hospitals, Ascension Sacred Heart Bay (known as Bay Medical Sacred Heart until Hurricane Michael destroyed a large portion of it) and HCA Florida Gulf Coast Medical Center.