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Cuba registered 71,358 births in 2024, compared to the 186,658 recorded in 1990, marking a decline of nearly 62% over three and a half decades, according to data published by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
The figure for 2024 is also the lowest in at least 65 years and marks the fourth consecutive year in which births in Cuba have fallen below 100,000 annually.
The ONEI specified that in 2024 19,034 fewer children were born than in 2023 and 51,285 fewer than in 2014, when 122,643 births were registered.
As a historical reference, the state agency noted that "the last year in which there were more than 200,000 births in Cuba was in 1974 (203,066)."
The decline also contrasts with the 1990s, when the crisis of the Special Period had already impacted birth rates: even in 1996, the lowest year of that period, 140,276 children were born on the island, nearly double the number in 2024.
The crude birth rate plummeted to 7.2 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2024, the lowest in the country's recent history, while the fertility rate stood at 1.29 children per woman, far below the generational replacement level of 2.1.
The collapse of the birthrate is part of a broader demographic catastrophe: in 2024, Cuba recorded 130,645 deaths compared to 71,358 births, resulting in a natural decrease of 56,740 people.
This is compounded by a massive emigration that reduced the official population to 9,748,007 residents by the end of 2024, a loss of more than 307,961 people compared to 2023 and over 1.4 million since 2020.
The deputy head of the ONEI, Juan Carlos Alfonso Fraga, acknowledged that the contraction is unprecedented: "There is no similar experience," he stated, noting that no country in the so-called Global South has experienced a population decline of that magnitude outside of a war context.
In 2025, the situation worsened even further: Cuba recorded only 68,051 births, a figure even lower than that reported in 1899, when the country was emerging from the War of Independence.
More than 25 % of the Cuban population is already over 60 years old, the highest proportion in Latin America, and the infant mortality rate increased by 148 % between 2018 and 2025, rising from 4.0 to 9.9 deaths per 1,000 live births.
The United Nations Population Fund warned in a meeting held in Havana on July 1 that, if current trends of low birth rates, aging, and mass emigration continue, Cuba could have only 5.6 million inhabitants by 2100.
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