Cuba’s population not growing, getting older

Cuba's population barely grew in 2015, according to figures released Thursday by the Center of Studies on Population and Development of the National Bureau of Statistics and Information.

With an increase of just a 0.06 per 1,000 residents, the population added a total of 727 people from the previous year to end 2015 with 11.2 million residents.

For various socioeconomic reasons, Cubans have few children -- less than two per couple on average. Between 2010 and 2015 the number of children per woman was 1.63.

Experts say the figures are a result of policies that stress social benefits and high standards of health, but growing the population has become a challenge for the third world country.

Unlike developed countries with similar figures, Cuba does not have immigration.

Professor Liliana Ramos at the University of Havana told Anadolu Agency that “fertility in Cuba has been low since the early twentieth century, but the economic constraints of recent decades have discouraged women from having more than one child.”

But a low birth rate is not the only problem revealed in the study.

The percentage of Cubans aged 60 and older is 19.4 percent, while at the same time those between 0 and 14 represent 16.5 percent of the total population.

By comparison, the 60 and over population in 2002 was just below 15 percent.

If current trends persist, experts say by 2025 the Caribbean island will have 1 million less inhabitants that it does currently and, by 2050 it will have proportionally fewer employees contributing to the economy to sustain an aging demographic that in many cases would be retired and have rising health care needs.

To help stem the tide of that eventuality, the government has introduced more specialized care for the elderly, employment incentives for those aged 60 and older and public policies to support the family.