Economy

Imports
$3.45 billion (2021). Poultry Meat ($330M), Wheat ($153M), Concentrated Milk ($107M), Crude Petroleum ($70.2M), and Rice ($66.9M), importing mostly from Spain ($741M), China ($574M), United States ($309M), Canada ($225M), and Italy ($185M).

Economic freedom
‘Not free’ (rated 24.3 out of 100) ranked 32nd out of 32 American countries and ranked 175th out of 186 countries worldwide (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).

Exports
$1.09 billion (2021). Rolled Tobacco ($275M), Nickel Mattes ($148M), Raw Sugar ($121M), Hard Liquor ($91.8M), and Zinc Ore ($89.6M), exporting mostly to China ($419M), Spain ($118M), Germany ($70.2M), Belgium ($58.7M), and Switzerland ($46.2M).

Media

Media language Spanish, English, French, Portuguese

Information channels
Cuba has the most repressive media environment in the Americas, says US-based NGO Freedom House. Almost all traditional media are state-controlled and journalists risk harassment and detention over coverage that is deemed to be critical of the authorities or the political system. In 2017, the Committee to Protect Journalists identified a gradual opening up of the media landscape. It cited a lively blogging scene, an increasing number of news websites and “an innovative breed of independent reporters”. The US tries hard to reach Cuban audiences. Washington-backed Radio-TV Marti says it provides balanced and uncensored news. 

Freedom House says online access is tightly controlled and prohibitively expensive. Most users can only access “a closely monitored Cuban intranet”, it says. The government blocks access to some independent news websites.

The press

Granma – Communist Party newspaper, website in five languages including English
Juventud Rebelde – Union of Young Communists newspaper, web pages in English
El Toque – independent news site
El Estornudo – independent news site

Television

Portal de la TV Cubana – state TV portal
RadioTelevision Marti – US state-run radio and television broadcaster in Miami.

Radio

Radio Rebelde – news, music, sport Radio Reloj – news
Radio Habana Cuba – external, languages include Spanish, English, French, Portuguese
Radio Progreso – entertainment

News agency

Cuban News Agency (ACN) – state-run
Prensa Latina – state-run

Internet Data

Internet users
71.1% penetration, 7.97 million

Share of web traffic by device
77.20% mobile phones, 22.21% computers (laptops and desktops), 0.59% tablet devices.

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
5.74  Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
1.91 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 59.5%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 68.5%

Most popular web search engines
Google (97.64%), Bing (1.92%), Yahoo! (0.15%), Duckduckgo (0.11%), Yandex (0.1%), other (0.08%).

Most used social media
Facebook (94.9%), Pinterest (3.51%), YouTube (0.6%), Instagram (0.55%), Twitter (0.35%), Tumblr (0.05%), Reddit (0.02%), other (0.01%).

Social statistics

Life expectancy
74 yrs (2021)

Religion
Cubans are very open towards religion. Catholic and African religions are the prevalent ones. For approximately 30 years, government policies discouraged any type of religious activities. After the collapse of the communist bloc in Europe, the government re-assessed its approach to religion and the Cuban population openly returned to religious practises.

Class
Class was almost non-existent or not visible during the 1960-1980 period. After the collapse of the communist bloc in Europe and the opening of trade with Western countries, class differences have emerged constituting a reality in the Cuban society today.
It should be noted that there are two currencies in Cuba. Workers who earn their salary in Cuban Pesos (CUP) usually have a hard time acquiring basic products for daily life as well as having access to some services. The case is different for a sector of the population who has income in Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC), such as musicians, athletes, employees of firms, embassies and tourism and people who own private businesses. In general, government policies have preserved the basic rights of all its citizens such as universal education, health care and employment.

Current health expenditure
12.49% of GDP

Current education expenditure
99.1% of total expenditure in public institutions.

Gender
Although the macho mentality is still prevalent, Cuban society has achieved a high level of equality between men and women. Nowadays, more women hold key positions in the government as ministers, directors, or managers.

Ethnicity
Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation with a highly mixed population. Most Cubans are from Spanish and African descent. People of Asian origin are also common, in a lesser ratio. A high percentage of the population could be qualified as mestizo or mulatto (a mix of races). The number of people of aboriginal origin is very low, and they usually live in the eastern part of the country, mainly Guantánamo.

Privileges
When you become friends with a colleague, you are sharing more than the time at work, communication could become less formal and details of personal life may occasionally be shared. So, some considerations or privileges might be expected. An open discussion on the topic may discourage such expectations.

CO2 emissions
2.2 metric tons per capita.

Corruption perceptions Index
Cuba scored 45 out of 100, ranked 65th out of 180 countries worldwide.