Health in Cuba

Health in Cuba refers to the overall health of the population of Cuba. Like the rest of the Cuban economy, Cuban medical care suffered following the end of Soviet subsidies in 1991; the stepping up of the US embargo against Cuba at this time also had an effect.

In the 1950s, the island had some of the most positive health indices in the Americas, not far behind the United States and Canada. Cuba was one of the leaders in life expectancy, and the number of doctors per thousand of the population ranked above Britain, France and the Netherlands. In Latin America it ranked in third place after Uruguay and Argentina. The mortality rate was the third lowest in the world.

The loss of Soviet subsidies brought food shortages to Cuba in the early 1990s. A Canadian Medical Association Journal paper states that "The famine in Cuba during the Special Period was caused by political and economic factors similar to the ones that caused a famine in North Korea in the mid 1990s. Both countries were run by authoritarian regimes that denied ordinary people the food to which they were entitled when the public food distribution collapsed; priority was given to the elite classes and the military."

+ WHO health statistics for CubaLife expectancy at birth m/f:77/81 (years, 2016)Healthy life expectancy at birth m/f:67.1/69.5 (years)Child mortality m/f:5 (per 1000 live births, 2018)Adult mortality m/f:116/68 (per 1000 population, 2016)Total health expenditure per capita:2475 (Intl $, 2014)Total health expenditure as % of GDP:11.1 (2014)
Rank Countries surveyed Statistic Date of Information 125 167 HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate 0.10% 2003 est. 162 175 Fertility rate 1.66 (children/woman) 2006. 153 224 Birth rate 11.89 (births/1,000 population) 2006 est. 168 226 Infant mortality rate 6.04 (deaths/1,000 live births) 2006. 129 224 Death rate 6.33 (deaths/1,000 population) 2005. 37 225 Life expectancy at birth 77.23 (years) 2006. est 17 99 Suicide rate 18.3 per 100,000 people per year 1996. *
All statistics from the World Factbook except * taken from World Health Organization figures.

Life expectancy at birth in Cuba in 1955 was 63 years in 1960 it was 63.9 years. To put these values in context, life expectancy at birth in some other regions and countries in 1960 were: (World Bank data):World, 50.18 years; Latin America and Caribbean, 56.21 years; high income OECD countries, 69.01 years; United States, 69.77 years. In 2007, the life expectancies at birth were as follows (World Bank data): Cuba, 78.26 years;World, 68.76 years; Latin America and Caribbean, 73.13 years; high income OECD countries, 79.66 years; United States, 77.99 years. The mortality rate for children under five years old was 54 per 1000 in Cuba in 1960 (World Bank). That year in Latin America and the Caribbean it was 154.66 per 1000; in the high income OECD countries it was 43.11; in the United States, 30.2. No World datum is available for 1960, but for 1970 it was 145.67 per 1000 (World Bank data). In 2000–2005 it was 6.1 per 1000 in Cuba; and, for comparison, 6.8 per 1000 in the United States. The 2007 infant mortality rates published by the World Health Organization in 2009 were: Cuba, 5; World, 46;High income countries, 6; United States, 6. The table below shows CEPAL (United nations) data spanning the pre and post revolutionary periods for three public health indicators. Health levels were better than the Latin American average before the revolution and showed continued steady improvement throughout the post revolutionary period. The total mortality rate shown is the crude – i. e., not age adjusted – rate, and therefore tends to rise as the proportion of elderly people in the population increases, which has been the case in Cuba because the birth rate is falling and life expectancy is rising. + Cuba: Public health 1950–2005 1950–55 1955–60 1960–65 1965–70 1970–75 1975–80 1980–85 1985–90 1990–95 1995–00 2000–05 Life expectancy 59.5 62.4 65.4 68.6 71.0 73.1 74.3 74.6 74.8 76.2 77.1 Mortality rate 10.73 9.21 8.56 7.30 6.37 5.94 6.31 6.65 7.06 6.66 7.08 Under 5 mortality 112.4 93.9 75.9 58.6 43.6 27.0 21.2 19.3 18.7 11.8 7.72 Notes:
Life expectancy is life expectancy at birth. Mortality rate is the crude mortality rate; i. e., annual number of deaths per 1,000 inhabitants. The under 5 mortality is the number of deaths of children up to age five, per 1,000 live births. Source: United Nations, Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean—CEPAL), Cepal Stat, Social Indicators and Statistics.

According to WHO figures for 2016, Cuba (U5M) has an under 5 child mortality U5M rate of 5.5 per 1000 live births.