• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 12 / 19 / 2010

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2010.12.18 - 12:06:41 / [email protected]. Havana, Cuba.- Cuba’s population experienced a slight decline in 2010 as a consequence of a falling birth rate, according to preliminary estimates by the National Office of Statistics (ONE), a tendency that has been predicted to continue in the next decade.

At the end of 2010 there will be 11 million 240,841 citizens, which reduces by 1,787 the number of people living in the Cuban archipelago, a trend that began in 2006 and that, with the exception of 2009, demographers predict will continue in the next 10 years.

The variable of general mortality will continue to grow gradually due to the increasing aging of inhabitants.

Meanwhile, the third element having a bearing on the population figure, emigration, has been stable over the last 15 years, according to analysts of the ONE, and the indicator ranged between 2.5 and 2.9 per one thousand inhabitants between 2004 and 2009.

Last year, reductions were registered only in the populations of Pinar del Río, Ciudad de La Habana and Villa Clara, while in the rest of the territories there were slight increases, with special emphasis in La Habana, Matanzas, Las Tunas and Santiago de Cuba, which concentrated the country’s most important growths.

A quick look at the 2009 demographic statistics, offered by the ONE, makes it possible to corroborate that over two million people are senior citizens (older than 60 years of age), 75 percent of which are more than 65 years old, which shows the aging of the Cuban population.

The volume that over the next five to ten years will get to that age is of over one million citizens, which will notably reduce the economically active population.

This corroborates that the decision of increasing retirement age was very good, in spite of the fact that the country is temporarily immersed in a work-related reorganization, by way of which over one million state workers will be available for re-employment and will transfer to other spheres of  production, the contribution of which is equally necessary for the country’s economy.

Source: ACN