The Cuban community in Spain has become the ninth largest in the country, with 252,290 residents in 2025, according to an analysis published this Sunday by El Debate based on data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the Central Electoral Office, and the Sociological Research Center (CIS).
In just four years, the number grew by 52%: in 2021, before the Law of Democratic Memory came into effect, Cubans residing in Spain totaled 166,076. This increase moved Cuba from 13th to 9th place among the countries of origin for the foreign population in the country.
The engine of growth is the so-called Law of Grandchildren, approved in October 2022, which allowed descendants of exiled Spaniards to apply for citizenship by origin. Since then, an average of 34,000 Cubans have arrived in Spain each year, more than triple the average of the previous decade, when the flow was around 10,000 annually.
In 2024, out of the 38,179 Cubans who emigrated to Spain, 40% arrived with Spanish passports, which is 10 percentage points higher than the average in previous years, according to the INE. The Spanish General Consulate in Havana received 107,338 nationality applications just in 2025.
63% of the 252,290 Cubans residing in Spain hold Spanish nationality and, therefore, have the right to vote in the general elections scheduled for November 29, called by the head of government, Pedro Sánchez, following a parliamentary defeat.
The measure imposed by the Supreme Court of Spain, which suspended the right to vote for thousands of Spanish citizens who were naturalized under the Grandchildren's Law, does not affect them.
This precautionary suspension decreed by the Supreme Court —which on October 12 rejected the state's appeal and upheld the measure— only affects those who are registered in the Electoral Census of Absent Residents (CERA) and obtained nationality through the controversial provisions of the law.
Cuban nationals who are living and registered in Spain will be able to vote on November 29. Those affected by the suspension have until October 22 to submit their claims to the Supreme Court.
The number of Spanish citizens registered as voters residing in Cuba decreased by 1,018 last September, being the only one among the major countries affected by the Grandchildren's Law that showed this behavior. The explanation, according to diplomatic sources cited by El Español, is that Cubans with Spanish passports are leaving the Island, whether to Spain or to other countries.
Despite that decline, Cuba remains the fifth country with the highest number of Spaniards registered to vote from abroad, following Argentina, France, the United States, and Mexico.
Regarding the political orientation of this community, the report from El Debate on microdata from the CIS indicates a clear lean towards the right: Vox receives 27% of the vote from Cubans in Spain —the highest percentage among all foreign communities— and the Partido Popular receives 26%, together accounting for 53%. Only Venezuelans provide a broader majority for this total, at 59%.
"Cubans, Venezuelans, and Romanians are the only large foreign communities in Spain with majority support for right-wing political options," the publication concludes.
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