Demographics of Cuba

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Cuba, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

The 2002 census figures supplied by the regime claim that 65% of Cubans were white.^[1] The Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami says 68% are black.^[1] The Minority Rights Group International says that "An objective assessment of the situation of Afro-Cubans remains problematic due to scant records and a paucity of systematic studies both pre- and post-revolution. Estimates of the percentage of people of African descent in the Cuban population vary enormously, ranging from 33.9 per cent to 62 per cent". It uses the number for 51% for mulattoes.^[2][3]

According to the 2002 census, Cuba's population was 11,177,743.

Religion

Cuba has a multitude of faiths reflecting the island’s diverse cultural elements. Catholicism, which was brought to the island by Spanish colonialists at the beginning of the 16th century, is the most prevalent professed faith. After the revolution, Cuba became an officially atheistic state and restricted religious practice. Since the Fourth Cuban Communist Party Congress in 1991, restrictions have been eased and, according to the National Catholic Observer, direct challenges by state institutions to the right to religion have all but disappeared,^[4] though the church still faces restrictions of written and electronic communication, and can only accept donations from state-approved funding sources.^[4] The Roman Catholic Church is made up of the Cuban Catholic Bishops' Conference (COCC), led by Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, Cardinal Archbishop of Havana.^{[citation needed]} It has eleven dioceses, 56 orders of nuns and 24 orders of priests. In January 1998, Pope John Paul II paid a historic visit to the island, invited by the Cuban government and Catholic Church.

Afro-Cuban religions, a blend of native African religions and Roman Catholicism, are widely practiced in Cuba. This diversity derives from West and Central Africans who were transported to Cuba, and in effect reinvented their African religions. They did so by combining them with elements of the Catholic belief system, with a result very similar to Brazil

Protestantism, introduced from the United States in the 18th century, has seen a steady increase in popularity. 300,000 Cubans belong to the island’s 54 Protestant denominations. Pentecostalism has grown rapidly in recent years, and the Assemblies of God alone claims a membership of over 100,000 people. The Episcopal Church of Cuba claims 10,000 adherents. Cuba has small communities of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and members of the Bahá'í

Cuban ancestry

The ancestry of Cubans comes from many sources:

• Spanish

During the 18th, 19th and early part of the 20th century, large waves of Spanish immigrants from Canary Islands, Catalonia, Andalusia, Galicia, and Asturias emigrated to Cuba.

• Canarian people
• Catalan people
• Andalusian people
• Galician people
• Asturian people

The Slave trade brought Africans to Cuba during its early history:

• Africans
• Haitians

Other European people that have contributed include:

• French
• Portuguese
• Italians
• Germans
• Russians

People from Asia:

• Chinese
• Lebanese

There is also a small number of Jews living in Cuba.

Origins of Cuban Spanish

Of all the regional variations of the Spanish language, traditional Cuban Spanish is most similar to, and originates largely from the Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands. Cuba owes much of their speech patterns to the Canarian migration, which in the 19th and early 20th Century was heavy and continuous. There was also migrations of Galicians and Asturians as well, but they did not leave a mirror image on their accent on the Cuban accent like the Canarian people did. Much of the typical Cuban replacements for standard Spanish vocabulary stems from Canarian lexicon. For example, guagua (bus) differs from standard Spanish autobús the former originated in the Canaries and is an onomatopoeia stemming from the sound of a Klaxon horn (wah-wah!). An example of Canarian usage for a Spanish word is the verb fajarse ^[5] ("to fight"). In standard Spanish the verb would be pelearse, while fajar exists as a non-reflexive verb related to the hemming of a skirt.

Demographic statistics from the Official 2002 Cuba Census

Life in Cuba
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^[6]

Illicit migration is a continuing problem. Cubans require Cuban government documentation to leave, and this is commonly refused. Cubans attempt to depart the island and enter the US using homemade rafts, alien smugglers, direct flights, or falsified visas; Cubans also use non-maritime routes to enter the US including direct flights to Miami and overland via the southwest US/Mexican border, and islands adjacent to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

Cuban census 2002

The 2002 census is the most recent official census of Cuba (as of 2007).

Population by region

See also

Cuba portal

• Cuban American
• Spanish people
• Canarian people
• Catalan people
• Chinese Cuban
• Afro-Cuban
• Isleños
• Jewish Cuban
• Women in Cuba
• Ranked list of Cuban provinces

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2006 edition".

• Statoids (July 2003). "Municipios of Cuba". http://www.statoids.com/ycu.html. Retrieved 2007-02-15. 
• Matanzas Portal (2004). "Population gowth by municipality and province". http://www.atenas.inf.cu/todo/Estadisticas/TABLA%20No_3balance.htm. Retrieved 2007-02-21. 
• The Peninsular (May 2007). Population, birth rate falling in Cuba: Official

External links

• Cuba statistics and related publications

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