Demographics of Cuba

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Demographics of Cuba, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.
Demographics of Cuba, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

Cuba is a multiracial society with a population of mainly Spanish ancestry.

According to the govt. sources, Cuba's population by December 31, 2006 was 11,239,536 compared to 11,243,000 in 2005. Total number of births was 111,084 in 2006 (BR of 9.88) compared to 120,716 (10.74) in 2005.

(Official 2002 Cuba Census)
Total Men Women  % Of Total
White 7,271,926 3,618,349 3,653,577 65.06%
Black 1,126,894 593,876 533,018 10.08%
Mulatto/Mestizo 2,778,923 1,385,008 1,393,915 24.86%[1]
El malecón de La Habana
El malecón de La Habana


Contents

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[edit] Religion

Main article: Religion in Cuba

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,[2] though the church still faces restrictions of written and electronic communication, and can only accept donations from state-approved funding sources.[2] 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

[edit] Cuban ancestry

The ancestry of white Cuban (65.05%) comes from one primary European source:

Other European people that have contributed include:

During the 18th, 19th and early part of the 20th century, large waves of Canarian, Catalan, Andalusian and Galician immigrants emigrated to Cuba.

Other Important sources:

People from Asia:

[edit] 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 [3] ("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.

[edit] Demographic data from the Official 2002 Cuba Census

Life in Cuba
Art
Cinema
Cuisine
Culture
Demographics
Education
Health
Holidays
Human Rights
Literature
Music
Politics
Religion
Tourism
Population 11,382,820 (July 2006 est.)
Age structure
0-14 years: 19.1% (male 1,117,677/female 1,058,512)
15-64 years: 70.3% (male 4,001,161/female 3,999,303)
65 years and over: 10.6% (male 554,148/female 652,019) (2006 est.)
Median age Total: 35.9 years
Male: 35.2 years
Female: 36.5 years (2006 est.)
Population growth rate -0.01% (2006 est.)
Birth rate 11.89 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Death rate 7.22 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Net migration rate
Sex ratio
At birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
Under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.85 male(s)/female
Total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)
Infant mortality rate Total: 6.32 deaths/1,000 live births
Male: 6.99 deaths/1,000 live births
Female: 5.41 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)
Life expectancy at birth Total population: 77.41 years
Male: 75.11 years
Female: 79.85 years (2006 est.)
Total fertility rate 1.66 children born/woman (2006 est.)
HIV/AIDS
Adult prevalence rate: less than 0.1% (2003 est.)
People living with HIV/AIDS: 3,300 (2003 est.)
Deaths: less than 200 (2003 est.)
Ethnic groups
White: 65.5%
Mulatto / Mestizo: 24.86%%
Black: 10.08%
Chinese: 1%
Religions Nominally 85% Roman Catholic prior to Castro assuming power; Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, and Santeria are also represented.
Languages
Spanish
English
Haitian Creole
Literacy Total population: 99.8% (2002 census)
Male: 99.8%
Female: 99.8%

Definition: age 15 and over can read and write

[4]

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.

[edit] Cuban census 2002

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

[edit] Population by region

Population and Area by region
Province Area
(km²)
Area
(%)
Population Population
(%)
Density
Cuba Total 109,886.19 100 11,177,743 100 101.72
Pinar del Río 10,904.03 9.92 726,574 6.50 66.63
La Habana 5,791.59 5.22 711,066 6.36 124.06
Ciudad de la Habana 721.01 0.66 2,201,610 19.70 3053.49
Matanzas 11,802.72 10.74 670,427 6.00 56.80
Villa Clara 8,412.41 7.06 817,395 7.31 97.17
Cienfuegos 4,180.02 3.80 395,183 3.54 94.54
Sancti Spíritus 6,736.51 6.13 460,328 4.12 68.33
Ciego de Ávila 6,783.13 6.17 411,766 3.68 60.70
Camagüey 15,615.02 14.21 784,178 7.02 50.22
Las Tunas 6,587.75 6.00 525,485 4.70 79.77
Holguín 9,292.83 8.46 1,021,321 9.14 109.90
Granma 8,375.49 7.62 822,452 7.36 98,20
Santiago de Cuba 6,156.44 5.60 1,036,281 9.27 168.32
Guantánamo 6,167.97 5.61 507,118 4.54 82.22
Isla de la Juventud 2,419.27 2.20 86,559 0.77 35.78

[edit] See also

[edit] References

This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook (2006 edition) which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain.

[edit] External links