Not only developed countries like Germany are facing depopulation. Cuba’s demographic decline has already begin according to El Pais’s article “La población Cubana decrece por tercer año consecutive” (“The Cuban Population Decreases for the Third Year in a Row”). The decline is accelerating (un ritmo acelerado). In 2025 there will be 74,000 Cubans fewer than in 2024.
Cuba has good public health statistics – an average life span of 77 (as opposed to 71 in Latin America) and a low infant death rate 5 per thousand live births (as opposed to 23 per 1000 in Latin America) but it also has a low birth rate, 1.43 (as opposed to 2.4 for the region). The replacement rate is 2.1.
Even more seriously, the population is aging. At present 16.6 % of the population is over 60 years old; by 2025 the percentage of the population over 60 will be 26%. By 2025 Cuba will have 772,000 fewer citizens of school age than it has now.
In other words, “el país estará pronto entre los más ‘viejos’ del planeta ,” the country will soon be among the oldest on the planet, with all that means for care of the elderly.
The government has promised to take unspecified steps to stop the population decline.