Tag Archives: Population

CUBA: ENVEJECIMIENTO DEMOGRÁFICO Y DESARROLLO HUMANO; CUBA: DEMOGRAPHIC AGEING AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Economía y Desarrollo

Econ. y Desarrollo, vol.164 no.2 La Habana Jul.-dic. 2020  Epub 31-Jul-2020

Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos Espiñeira,  Centro de Estudios de la Economía Cubana (CEEC), Universidad de La Habana, Cuba.

Artículo Original: Cuba: envejecimiento demográfico y desarrollo humano

An excellent demographic analysis of Cuba’s aging population and its socio-economic impacts, also using a range of novel graphics to summarize demographic phenomena\ and data.

RESUMEN

El artículo analiza el estado del proceso de envejecimiento demográfico en Cuba y su impacto en la estructura de edades de la población, así como el efecto que ha producido sobre la disponibilidad de recursos laborales el bono demográfico y el bono de género e igualmente aborda las causas que llevaron a la extinción de ese primer bono demográfico. El texto finaliza con una propuesta de política integral de población enfocada hacia el alcance de objetivos explícitos de desarrollo humano.

Palabras clave: bono de género; bono demográfico; envejecimiento demográfico; recursos laborales

ABSTRACT

The article analyses the state of the demographic ageing process in Cuba and its impact on the age structure of the population, as well as the effect it has had on the availability of labour resources the demographic bonus and the gender bonus, and also addresses the causes that led to the extinction of this first demographic bonus. The text ends with a proposal for a comprehensive population policy focused on achieving explicit human development objectives.

Keywords: gender bonus; demographic bonus; demographic ageing; labour resources

INTRODUCCIÓN

La comprensión de la dinámica demográfica cubana actual pasa necesariamente por la explicación de cada uno de sus componentes, en estrecha interrelación con la población y el desarrollo. El debate en torno a la fecundidad y su evolución, a la variabilidad de las migraciones o a la convergencia de perfiles epidemiológicos que inciden sobre los niveles de mortalidad determina hoy posicionamientos también desde la política. Es una excelente oportunidad de diálogo ciencia-política, de forma tal que la primera aporte insumos y recomendaciones al modo en que se trazan e implementan acciones y a su vez a las posibilidades de monitoreo sistemático a los procesos.

El contexto social, económico y político actual abre una oportunidad al binomio ciencia-política en esta y en otras ramas del conocimiento. En el campo de la demografía de lo que se trata es entonces de contribuir a posicionar las características de su dinámica y desde el contexto de lo que expone la política hoy proponer ajustes e inclusiones en su concepción.

Artículo Original: Cuba: envejecimiento demográfico y desarrollo humano

CONCLUSIONES

Lo hasta aquí expuesto muestra que no existe escasez alguna de fuerza de trabajo en el país y que la solución no sería en ningún caso el facilismo de la visión simplista del pronatalismo. Es decisivo que se abandone la percepción de que el desarrollo humano es solo el mejoramiento de la extensión de la esperanza de vida al nacer y de las condiciones educacionales de la población. Es inexorable la adopción de una visión en la que el mejoramiento de las condiciones de vida y de la calidad de la supervivencia ocupen un lugar central, en el que el mejoramiento de los salarios, en particular, y de los ingresos, en general, de la población, ocupen ese lugar central que necesitan entre los objetivos de la política.

En todo caso, y como se muestra en la Tabla 2, el país lograría un puntaje en el índice global de 0,844, algo superior a la cota máxima, 0,823, alcanzada en 2007 cuando se ocupó el puesto 57. Cuba se situaría entonces en el lugar 44 del ranking de países que conforman la franja de muy alto desarrollo humano, junto a Chile, que ocupa hoy ese puesto, Argentina (47), Uruguay (56) y Barbados (58) que son, en la región, los que lo han logrado y se han consolidado en esa franja. Nótese además que lo que se propone es retornar a valores de los índices en las distintas dimensiones de desarrollo humano que fueran conseguidos por nuestro país en el pasado reciente y ahora serían las metas que, en un lapso de 12 años, hacia 2030, se proponen como objetivos de política bajo este enfoque; y para ello el crecimiento económico es imperioso. No más una posibilidad ni un lujo intelectual. Sin los recursos que aporta el crecimiento sostenido de la economía, es poco probable evitar que se siga retrocediendo en materia de desarrollo humano.

Cuando eso suceda, ya se verá que aquello que percibimos hoy como necesidades de la población de Cuba habrá desaparecido en buena medida y habrá sido sustituido a su vez por otras demandas. Pero, eso sí, el envejecimiento demográfico, el decrecimiento del número de habitantes, la fractura ideológica que representa la desvalorización del trabajo (manifestada a través del casi millón y medio de personas con edades entre 15 y 59 años aptas y calificadas que ni siquiera se plantean la búsqueda de un empleo formal y sí la búsqueda de un canal migratorio de salida), el casi un cuarto de la población urbana que tiene ingresos por debajo del valor de la canasta básica (en un contexto en el que el salario medio representa apenas un tercio de la línea de pobreza), así como muchos otros rasgos que hoy causan tanto desasosiego dejarán de ser percibidos como «problemas de población» -que en realidad no son tales- y quién sabe, quizás hasta pueda Cuba convertirse en un espacio de atracción y se detengan los éxodos. Ese es el verdadero reto desde la perspectiva del desarrollo humano. He ahí una verdadera política de población.

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CUBA WANTS MORE BABIES, SO IT’S GIVING PARENTAL LEAVE TO GRANDPARENTS, TOO

By Nick Miroff February 10, Washington Post
Original Article: Grandparents and Fertility Rates!

MEXICO CITY — Cuba is giving parental leave to the grandparents of newborns, the country’s latest attempt to reverse its sagging birthrate and defuse a demographic time bomb.

The island already has one of the most generous parental leave policies in the Americas, allowing mothers and fathers to take more than a year off from work at partial pay. The new decree extends those benefits to maternal and paternal grandparents.

But so far, such attempts haven’t brought any sort of Cuban baby boom.  The island of 11 million has one of the lowest fertility rates in the Western Hemisphere, with 1.7 births per woman. There are several factors that explain this figure, but they mostly come down to a combination of effective socialist medical care and a dysfunctional state-run economy.

Cuba’s health-care system makes contraceptives widely available, and abortions are available on demand. At the same time, Cuban women are a growing portion of the country’s professional workforce, and many choose to delay motherhood until their late 30s, often because they don’t have the financial means to care for children.

It’s hardly the only demographic problem Cuba faces: Some  60,000 to 80,000 Cubans emigrate each year, many of them young people looking for better opportunities in the United States, Europe and Latin America.

The Cubans who stay behind are going gray. Nearly one-fifth of the island’s population is 60 or older, and they depend on a shrinking pool of Cuban workers to keep the state-run economy afloat. Cuba’s life expectancy is 78, on par with the United States, so there’s a larger and larger pool of dependents.

According to the Communist Party newspaper Granma, the decision to extend parental leave to grandparents was necessary “to deal with the high degree of aging among the population, and to encourage fertility in the short term.”  “The challenge of raising the birthrate in Cuba is a challenge that cannot be put off,” Granma said.

The decrees also reduce day-care costs for Cuban parents with multiple children, and provide tax breaks for women who work in the country’s small but growing private sector.

Offering partial salary to Cuban parents on leave is not the kind of burden for the government — which employs about 70 percent of the workforce — that it would be in more prosperous nations.

The average official state salary hovers around $20 a month. Paying parents and grandparents a fraction of that to care for children is costly in a country where economic growth is stagnant, but nothing like the expenditure it would be elsewhere.

The United Kingdom has adopted a leave policy for grandparents who still work, and while a similar law has been proposed in Argentina, Cuba appears to be the first Latin American country to offer the benefits to grandparents.

 

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Cuba’s Conception Conundrum: A Valentine’s Day Puzzle

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By Arch Ritter

An interesting phenomenon, namely the seasonal character of the numbers of births in Cuba – and of course the accompanying though implied seasonality of conception rates – is apparent in Table II.5 of the 2012 ONE Anuario Demográfico[i]. This is illustrated in Chart 1 below.

 New Picture (12)

The number of births over the course of the year follows a clear pattern that is apparent in the six years illustrated in the Chart. The number of births peak from September to December, decline sharply during the months of January to April, bottom out from May to June and then rise again from July to September.

In view of the nine-month period between conception and birth, the chart says something interesting about the amorous character of Cuban citizens. The implication of the birth pattern is that conception levels are highest from January to April and lowest from August to October.

Why would Cubans be so much more amorous in the January-April period than the August to October period?   

Is it the weather? Perhaps the cooler sunny weather of Cuba’s winter months is more conducive to amorous events and conception. And, conversely, perhaps the heat and mugginess of summer and the autumn rainy season is less conducive to “amor.”

Is it economics? Possibly there is greater optimism and dynamism during the more prosperous times of the tourist high season (which once corresponded to the Zafra, when sugar was king.)

Is it tourism? The pattern of conception levels corresponds closely to the seasonal pattern of tourism in Cuba as can be inferred from Chart 2 below. ­.

Does Valentine’s Day itself generate more conceptions and related activities, given that births often spike nine months later in October?

If anyone has clearer and more definitive insights into this phenomenon, please let me know!

 New Picture (11)

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[i] Cuba’s Oficina Nacional de Estadisticas (ONE) recently published the 2012 Edition of the Anuario Demográfico de Cuba 2012. Statistical information for Cuban demography is available comprehensively and conveniently. ONE’s coverage and presentation of demographic statistics is impressive. (In contrast, basic information on the economy such as unemployment, the consumer price index, trade and GDP is opaque, minimalist, not clearly defined, and now very late in appearing on ONE’s web site.)

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Cuban Demography and Development: the “Conception Seasonality Puzzle”, the “Dissipating Demographic Dividend” and Emigration.

By Arch Ritter

Cuba’s Oficina Nacional de Estadisticas (O.N.E.) recently published the 2010 Edition of the Anuario Demográfico de Cuba 2009, available on line here: http://www.one.cu/anuariodemografico2009.htm. A wide-ranging listing of the web publications on demography and population is located at this address: Oficina Nacional de Estadisticas, LA POBLACION CUBANA . Comprehensive statistical information for Cuba is available quickly, comprehensively. ONE’s coverage and presentation of demographic statistics has been improving steadily in terms of quality and timeliness. (In contrast, basic information on the economy such as unemployment, the consumer price index, and GDP is opaque, minimalist, and not clearly defined.)

Numerous useful and interesting insights into Cuba’s development, past and prospective, are apparent in the ONE data – and other demographic sources. A few are mentioned here.

1. Cuba’s Seasonal Conception Puzzle

An interesting phenomenon. of which I have been unaware. is the seasonal character of the numbers of births in Cuba – and of course the causal seasonality of conception rates. As Chart 1 illustrates, births peak from August to December but decline sharply during the months of February to June. This means that Cuba’s amorous months of high conception levels are from about December to April.

One can venture a number of guesses as to why this might be the case. For example, perhaps the cooler weather of Cuba’s winter months is more conducive to activities related to conception. Or maybe there is greater optimism and dynamism during the more prosperous times of the tourist high season. If anyone has clearer insights into this phenomenon, please let me know!

Chart 1 also shows increasing numbers of births from 2007 to 2009.

2. From Baby Boom to Baby Bust and Beyond?

From 1960 to 1970 Cuba experienced a major “baby boom” with fertility rates rising to around 4.5 children per woman on average Chart 2. This may reflect the improvement in living conditions for many families, improved medical facilities and perhaps greater optimism about the future, leading women and families to choose to have more children during the first decade of the Revolution.  As is well known, however, the fertility rate began a long descent to levels a good deal below the minimum necessary for long-term population stability which is considered to be around 2.2 children per woman.  This baby “bust” commenced in 1970 and has continued to 2009, bottoming out at 1.39 children per woman in 2006 but rising somewhat to 1.70 in 2009. Cuba’s demographic experience is similar to that of numerous higher income countries such as Spain, with a fertility rate of 1.6 in 2005-2010: Italy, 1.4 ; Portugal, 1.4; Russia, 1.5; Canada, 1.6 and Germany 1.3.)

The causes of the declining fertility rates in Cuba undoubtedly included similar factors to the experience of other countries: higher female labor force participation rates (so that the income sacrifice for additional children was higher), better pension systems (so that one’s children were no longer necessary for income-support during old age), reduced opportunities for employing children as income earning assets due to urbanization and increased schooling, different career aspirations for women, easy availability of contraception including abortion etc.

The impact of the changing fertility rates can then be observed in the 2010 population pyramid (Chart 3.) The 1960-1975 “Baby Boomers” reached age 40 to 50 during the 2000s leading to the large cohorts in the 2010 pyramid. But since 1970, the declining fertility rate has led to ever-narrowing cohorts of younger age groups. Even the demographic “echo” of the 1960-1970 cohort was muted.

Chart 3  Cuba’s Population Pyramid, 2010

The consequences for Cuba of an aging population also are similar to those for other countries, though some other high income countries, large scale immigration changes the picture. The main consequences are:

  • The Old Age Dependency rate increased by almost 40% over the 1990-2010 period. Child Dependency rates declined by about 30% in the same period, reflecting the declining fertility rate.  (Table 1.).
  • The aging population will cause the Total Dependency Ratio (the sum of Child and Old Age Dependency as a proportion of the total population) to increase in future, burdening the economically active population for the support of pensioners and their health care.
  • The “aging population” in time will become a “dying population.” The population, previously increasing or stable, will decline sharply when the “baby boom” cohorts hit age 65 or so in 10 to 15 years. This could be modified by compensating changes in fertility or international migration, but not in life expectancy which is unlikely to rise much further in future..
  • The “Total Dependency Ratio” has been particularly low during the years when Child Dependency declined but the large “Baby Boom” age cohorts were still of working age. It is now at 42.2% (Table 1). Consequently the economically active population between age 20 and 60 as a proportion of the total population has been large.This so-called “demographic dividend” or “demographic window of opportunity” normally provides a stimulus to growth and development as in China. However, in Cuba’s case, it is passing quickly and so far has been partly wasted as it has been underemployed in low productivity activities.

Emigration

The Anuario Demográfico de Cuba 2009 also provides comprehensive information on internal migration and some general figures for external migration. Emigration numbers are illustrated in Figure 4. The “Special Period” since 1994 has been characterized by a steady hemorrhage of emigration. While ONE does not present information on the sociological character of the emigrants, casual observation suggests that they are well educated, entrepreneurial and perhaps disproportionately in the early adult 18 to 35 age grouping.

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