Cuba Has Latin America’s Oldest Population: 26.7% Are 60+

Cuba has the oldest population in Latin America and the Caribbean, with people ages 60 and older accounting for 26.7% of its 9,434,593 residents at the end of 2025, according to a newly released government demographic yearbook. The figures show population aging in Cuba accelerating as low birth rates and emigration shrink the island.

The report, Population Aging: Cuba and Its Territories, 2025, was prepared by the Center for Population and Development Studies (CEPDE) at Cuba’s National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) and released on October 20, 2026. In its dispatch from Havana, EFE reported the yearbook’s central finding: “Cuba had a population of 9,434,593 at the end of 2025, 26.7% of whom were 60 or older.”

That share rose by one percentage point from 25.7% at the end of 2024. The shift has been decades in the making: Cuba has remained below replacement-level fertility since 1978, according to findings from ONEI’s 2022 National Fertility Survey, released in July 2023.

Where Cuba’s oldest population is concentrated

The highest shares of older residents are concentrated in central and western Cuba. Villa Clara leads the provinces, with 30.2% of its population age 60 or older, followed by Havana at 29.1%. At the other end of the scale, Guantánamo stands at 23.3%, while Santiago de Cuba and Artemisa each register 24.2%.

The gap is even wider between municipalities. Plaza de la Revolución, in Havana, has the country’s highest share of older adults at 38.2%. Yateras, in Guantánamo province, has the lowest at 17.9%.

Havana province had 1,673,208 residents at the end of 2025, including 486,650 people age 60 or older—nearly three in 10. Children under 14 numbered just 251,527, reflecting decades of low birth rates. Women outnumber men across age groups, with the imbalance becoming more pronounced among older residents.

The demographic figures also provide context for individual accounts of hardship. Cubanos por el Mundo previously reported allegations of an elderly man’s abandonment in Holguín, a story that put a human face on the needs of older Cubans without family support.

Cuba’s population has fallen since its 2016 peak

The yearbook places the latest decline in a longer timeline. Cuba’s population reached a record 11,239,224 in 2016. By the end of 2024, it had fallen to 9,748,007. Between 2020 and 2024 alone, the country lost approximately 1.4 million residents, according to ONEI.

Deaths have also consistently outnumbered births. In 2024, Cuba recorded 128,098 deaths and 71,358 births—a difference of 56,740. The country has registered more deaths than births every year since 2020, while annual births have remained below 100,000 over the same period.

The total fertility rate fell to 1.29 children per woman in 2024, the lowest level in the country’s recorded history. Together, fewer births and the departure of younger residents reduce the generations available to replace an aging population.

Low fertility and emigration drive population aging in Cuba

Antonio Aja Díaz, director of the University of Havana’s Center for Demographic Studies, attributed the trend to persistently low fertility since 1978 and emigration, according to EFE. He also pointed to adolescent fertility and the postponement of a first or second child as factors shaping the country’s demographic outlook.

The departure of Cubans for countries such as Spain has accelerated the shift. ONEI data released in July 2026 put Cuba’s net loss to migration at 245,264 people in 2025. When people of working and childbearing age leave, the country loses residents while older adults make up a larger proportion of those who remain.

This is a continuation of a trend Cubanos por el Mundo has covered for years. Our October 2024 report on Cuba’s aging population cited a then-reported share of 24.4% for people over 60. The latest yearbook puts the share for those 60 and older at 26.7%.

The 2040 projection: 36% age 60 or older

A demographic projection presented by ONEI in September 2026 points to an even older and smaller population in the coming years. Under that projection, people age 60 or older would account for 36% of Cuba’s population by 2040, while the total number of residents would fall to approximately 8.38 million.

Those figures are projections, rather than a count of current residents. They outline the scale of the challenge facing a country already experiencing sustained population decline and a growing proportion of older adults.

The yearbook calls for an economic model that addresses demographic sustainability through inclusive employment, technological innovation and policies that allow older adults to participate in productive economic activity.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) classifies countries in the region by stage of demographic aging, and Cuba is among those furthest along in that process.

This English version incorporates the October 21, 2026, corrections to our original Spanish report: the finding on replacement-level fertility comes from ONEI’s 2022 National Fertility Survey, and ONEI presented the population projection in September 2026.