14ymedio, Madrid, 4 September 2024 — The data of the collapse of the population in Cuba does not give a break. Almost two months after it became known that at the end of 2023 there were 10,055,968 residents on the Island, detailed statistics reveal that Havana lost 15% of its inhabitants in three years and already has fewer than two million residents, a figure it hasn’t had since at least the 1990s. In addition, the other two provinces that exceeded one million inhabitants in 2020, Santiago de Cuba and Holguín, no longer reach that number.
The detailed figures appear in the report “Demographic Indicators of Cuba and its Territories,” whose general features were presented in August by the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (Onei) and were published in full this Tuesday on the institution’s website. In the absence of the repeatedly postponed census, Onei experts proposed a model to approach the “effective population” that is based on the accumulation of at least 180 days of stay in the national territory, both for newborns, deceased and, most importantly, migrants.
The result could not be more discouraging. Each and every one of the Cuban municipalities lost population between the end of 2020 and the end of 2023, bringing the total number of residents on the Island to figures that have not been seen since 1983, when Cuba reached 9,984,591. A year later, it already had 9,571 more inhabitants than at the end of last year.
Each and every one of the Cuban municipalities lost population between the end of 2020 and the end of 2023
In detail, the general panorama confirms that the western provinces lost the highest percentage of population compared to the eastern ones, predictably because the purchasing power – very necessary to emigrate – is lower in the latter. This means that there are fewer family members and acquaintances abroad, decreasing contacts for leaving and the possibilities of obtai
