From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Cubans are a multiracial people of mainly Spanish origin.

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.

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

El malecón de La Habana

[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,^[1] though the church still faces restrictions of written and electronic communication, and can only accept donations from state-approved funding sources.^[1] 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:

• 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

Other European people that have contributed include:

• French
• Portuguese
• Italians
• Germans
• Russians

Other Important sources:

• African
• Haiti

People from Asia:

• Chinese
• Vietnamese

[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 ^[4] ("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 statistics from the Official 2002 Cuba Census

Life in Cuba
Art
Cinema
Cuisine
Culture
Demographics
Education
Health
Holidays
Human Rights
Literature
Music
Politics
Religion
Tourism

^[5]

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

[edit] 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

[edit] References

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

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

[edit] External links

• Cuba statistics and related publications

v • d • e Demographics of North America Sovereign states Antigua and Barbuda · Bahamas · Barbados · Belize · Canada · Costa Rica · Cuba · Dominica · Dominican Republic · El Salvador · Grenada · Guatemala · Haiti · Honduras · Jamaica · Mexico · Nicaragua · Panama1 · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Trinidad and Tobago1 · United States Dependencies and other territories Anguilla · Aruba1 · Bermuda · British Virgin Islands · Cayman Islands · Greenland · Guadeloupe · Martinique · Montserrat · Netherlands Antilles1 · Puerto Rico · Saint Barthélemy · Saint Martin · Saint Pierre and Miquelon · Turks and Caicos Islands · United States Virgin Islands 1 Territories also in or commonly reckoned elsewhere in the Americas (South America).