Cuba’s population is plummeting amid mass migration, an aging demographic, and fewer births.

Experts told The Associated Press that the shrinking population represents a demographic situation that they consider dramatic for the economy and development of a country in crisis.

Fewer births and an aging population signal difficulties in the future with a shrinking labor force and greater pressure on the pension and elderly care system.

Officially, the number of Cuban residents in 2022 was 11,089,500. However, the number doesn’t take into consideration the 334,000 Cubans that U.S. authorities say crossed the border in the last 18 months. It also doesn’t take into account the thousands who are estimated to have left for other nations in Europe and Latin America.

In 2022 alone, there were nearly 250,000 Cubans (more than 2% of the 11 million Cuban total population) who have migrated to the U.S.

"The numbers for Cuba are historic, and everybody recognizes that," a senior State Department official told The New York Times in December. "That said, more people are migrating globally now than they ever have been and that trend is certainly bearing out in our hemisphere, too."

And Juan Carlos Alfonso, deputy head of the National Statistic ad Information Office in Cuba, told the AP: "It’s a complex situation. We are not the only ones. But we are following countries that are more developed in this situation."

Higher levels of education for women, easy access to contraceptives and legal abortion means that Cuban women have an average of less than two children, according to the AP.

Yalin Periera, director of a maternity home in Cuba added: "We have seen the population decrease. For example, five years ago, we had around 900-1,000 births. As the years went by either because of the pandemic or other factors that have influenced this, last year it decreased, for example, to around 700 to 800.

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