A report assures that 88% of Cubans live in extreme poverty

88% of citizens in Cuba live in a situation of extreme poverty, according to a study published by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), an organization that also detects a growing concern about food security on the island and shortages to acquire basic products.

According to the VI Report on the State of Social Rights in Cuba, prepared from 1,354 interviews in 75 municipalities, the poverty rate has risen 13 points in one year, if those who earn less than 1 are included within this category, 90 dollars a day for a family of three.

Concern about the food crisis also grows five points (70 percent), which heads a list of problems to which are added the low level of salaries (50 percent) and inflation (34 percent).

The OCDH attributes the worsening of the situation ” to the structural and accumulated crises and the lack of political will of the authorities to make the changes that the country needs.”

68% of the people interviewed rate the management of the regime as “very negative” -17 points more-, while 86% criticize the work of the authorities in economic and social matters.

48% affirm that they have stopped eating due to lack of money or resources to obtain food, while 32% indicate that they needed medicine but could not buy it, either due to its price or scarcity.

According to this study, 62% of Cubans have problems even buying “the most essential things to survive”, 11 points more than in another similar survey carried out in 2022.

88% of citizens in Cuba live in a situation of extreme poverty

Serious increase in poverty

“Placing the poverty threshold at $1.90 per day per person, for a household of 3 members and according to the total income reported per household, 88% of Cubans live below the poverty threshold,” the report highlighted.

And he continued: “The incidence of the few subsidized products and services, due to their short duration, intermittency or scarcity, have less and less impact on households, unlike other elements such as non-state market prices, including the black, or remittances.”

He then emphasized that “ the value of the Cuban currency in the non-state market, which is the usual reference for Cubans, has been very unstable in this period (from August 2022 to August 2023). In this context, we take as the exchange rate of the dollar to the cup the median of the monthly data of said rate compiled by the Economic Observatory, a service of the OCDH: 1 dollar to 180 cup. Considering this rate, households that earn less than 30,780 cup per month would be in poverty given that 14% of households located in the income bracket between 23,001 and 35,000 cup have problems purchasing the most essential products, we can consider that such proportion of households in that range would also be in a situation of poverty.”

The observatory highlighted that, as was observed in other years, the age groups of 31 to 45 years and 46 to 60 years are the ones who most frequently receive family remittances (29% and 31%, respectively); and those who are less, those over 70 years of age (17%). Distinguishing by racial groups, in the white group 31% received remittances (only two percentage points more than in the population as a whole); in the mestizo or mulatto population, 25%; and in the black population, 21%).

The report detected growing concern about food security and shortages in basic products

Main social problems facing Cuba

The following list comes from a multiple selection of those consulted, who answered a maximum of three answers:

1- The food crisis: 70%.

2- Salaries: 50%.

3- Inflation: 34%.

4- Public health: 22%.

5- The political system: 17%.

6- Housing: 17%.

7- Citizen insecurity: 16%.

8- The ordering task: 16%.

9- Emigration: 12%.

10- Unemployment: 12%.

11- The government: 12%.

12- Water scarcity: 4%.