study aims to «demographic emptying»

The population of Cuba has been reduced to about 8 million people, with a 24% drop in the last four years, according to a recent study by Cuban economist and demographer Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos, the news agency reported EFE.

The number of Cubans residing on the island at the end of 2024 amounted to only 8,025,624, well below 9,748,532 reported by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), concludes the expert, which bases its estimates on official data and own estimates.

In the investigation, Albizu-Campos emphasizes that such an abrupt population reduction «has only been observed in armed conflict contexts», and questions whether the situation of Cuba should be described as a «demographic crisis» or as a «systemic crisis.»

The expert also considered that the official figures underestimate the effective population of the island and the negative effect it has had on its population The greatest migratory exodus of its history, occurred in the investigated period.

According to their estimates, around 545,011 Cubans left the island in 2024, compared to 248,165 that recognize official figures, which only include migrants to the United States and not those who emigrated to other destinations, criticized the expert.

Albizu-Campos calls this phenomenon «demographic emptying»and attributes it to the «permanent polyvisis» that Cuba lives. This dynamic, underlines, is acting as an advance indicator of other variables, indicates the EFE report.

In 2024, the Cuban population maintained a tendency to aging and decrease, The authorities recognized last February. Juan Carlos Alfonso Faga, VICEIZEFE of the Onei, said then that Cuba lost that year more than 300 thousand inhabitants and reported the lowest birth of births of the last decades.

An previous study of Albizu-Campos, a professor at the Christian Center for Reflection and Dialogue in the country, estimated in July 2024 that the population of the island had fallen to 8.62 million inhabitants, a 18%decrease in 2022 and 2023.