Country Fact Sheet Cuba Table of contents

1. Country Profile

2. Geographical Presentation¹

The Republic of Cuba is a free socialist, sovereign, and collective State. Cuba is an archipelago located in the western- most part of the Caribbean Sea, comprising the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud (the Island of Youth), and some 1,600 smaller islands and keys, for a total land area of 110,860 km2. Cuba is the largest island of the grouping of the Caribbean, situated west of Hispaniola island (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and 145 km south of Key West, Florida (US).

Cuba is made up of 14 provinces, divided into 169 municipalities, a Special Municipality, the Isla de la Juventud. 75,8% of just over 11 million Cubans live in urban areas. In recent years, population growth has slowed significantly. Cuba is characterized by uniformity in the geographical distribution of its population and the variables that comprise it. The central provinces and the capital have older populations.

Cuba is situated in the hurricane belt and frequently suffers severe impacts from hurricanes or tropical storms. The island was severely hit by three hurricanes in 2008, with overall damage estimated at some USD 10 billion. Climate change may be increasing the frequency and strength of the hurricanes that affect Cuba.

2. Socio-economic Analysis²

Cuba's population stood at 11.24 million at the end of 2009. The population has largely stabilised, with average annual growth of less than 0.5 percent per year over the past decade, a level which is well below the Latin American average of 1.6 percent. According to official figures, in 2008-09 the population increased slightly, with annual net emigration since 2000 averaging around 30,000 (around 0.3 percent of the population), of whom 20,000 legally migrate every year to the US under a bilateral migration agreement. Both birth and death rates are low compared with the regional average. The demographic profile is one of a rapidly ageing population due to low death rates and emigration, and therefore a rising old age dependency ratio. According to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the percentage of the population over 65 years rose from 8.4 percent in 1990 to 9.6 percent in 2000, and will rise to 15.8 percent in 2020. The Cuban authorities are concerned with the ageing of the population as well as with the exodus from rural to urban areas. The government is in the process of analysing scenarios of population shifts for the next 15 years.

Cuba’s population replacement rate has not been guaranteed since 1978. In 1975, the number of children born per woman was only 1.5. Approximately 79% of deaths occur among the population aged 60 and older. In Cuba, infant mortality and mortality among child under 5 have markedly decreased. The increase in life expectancy at birth is a faithful reflection of the country’s significant reduction in mortality. At the beginning of the20th century, life expectancy was 40 years. In 2005, life expectancy was more than 77 years.

Since the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, particular emphasis has been placed on support policies in the social sector, including education, health and social security, as an essential element of the 'social contract' between the Communist government and the Cuban people.

Despite the serious economic and financial problems that Cuba faced in particular during the "special period" from 1991, efforts have been made to minimise the social costs of the necessary fiscal austerity measures. Effective social sector support has always been and will remain key for the legitimacy of Cuba's Communist government.

The Human Development Index (HDI) for Cuba is high, at 0.86315, which means that the country ranks 51^st out of 182 countries for which data are available. While Cuba ranks second in adult literacy, it comes only 95^th in the GDP per capita (PPP USD) poverty measure (see previous points on GDP calculation). However, its Human Poverty Index (HPI-1) ranking is 17^th among the 135 developing countries for which the index has been calculated.

The emphasis placed by the government on the universal provision of basic health care has made Cuba's health statistics comparable to those of industrialised nations. In 2009, life expectancy at birth was 77.97 years (the highest in Latin America and Caribbean region after Chile and Costa Rica) and the infant-mortality rate was 4.7 per 1,000 live births (the lowest in the region). A preventive health care system, based on family doctors serving small patient groups, was developed in the 1980s. Cuba has the highest ratio of doctors to population in the world (633 per 100,000 in 2007). Since around 20,000 physicians out of a total of 71,000 work abroad, the number available on the island is significantly less, but still high by international standards.

With respect to HIV/AIDS, after the first case of HIV was diagnosed in the country in 1985, the Cuban government implemented a national programme for the monitoring and management of the epidemic that included control strategies, education, prevention and treatment. This approach has kept the rate of prevalence on the island to 0.1 percent, the lowest in the Americas. The Cuban mortality rate from AIDS-related diseases is also low, at 1.0 per 100,000 inhabitants. Sexual transmission is the main source of infection (99 percent). Despite these achievements, the number of new infections has increased steadily since 1996, especially among homosexuals. The majority of those living with HIV/AIDS are men (80 percent).

Under Cuban law, women and men have equal rights and responsibilities regarding marriage, divorce, raising children, house-keeping and pursuing a career. The law also lays down the principle of equal pay for equal work. Cuba ranks 49^th out of 177 countries in the Gender Development Indicator. It is a signatory of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and it reports regularly to the Commission of Experts of this Convention. In its last report, produced in 2005, Cuba defined three main challenges for gender equality: a) change of mentality about the traditional roles of men and women, b) focus on gender issues in policies, programmes and projects and c) participation of women in high-level posts. Gender and racial equality remain among the declared objectives of the Cuban state, although it is acknowledged at the highest level that there is room for improvement, e.g. representation of women in senior positions.³

The state is Cuba's main employer, but the share of state employment has fallen since 1990, when it accounted for 95 percent of total employment. By 2000 it had slipped to 77 percent, but since then it has crept back up to over 80 percent. The main non-state jobs are in the agricultural sector, where traditional private small farmers were joined by members of newly created farm co-operatives, known as "Unidades Básicas de Producción Cooperativa" (UBPCs – Basic Units of Co-operative Production), which replaced many of the large state landholdings. New categories of self-employment and family businesses that have been legalised since 1993 have had to operate under tight regulation and high taxes.

There are huge disparities in wages between different employment sectors, and especially between those working in tourism with access to CUC or other hard-currency, and the rest of the population, which relies on salaries in CUP. A senior specialised physician earns a salary equivalent to €40 per month in CUP, while a parking keeper can earn five times more with tips in CUC. The average monthly salary of a state employee is around the equivalent of USD 1533.

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