POPULATION-CUBA: Census to Measure Two Decades of Changes

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Aug 22 2002 (IPS) - Cuba is preparing for next month’s population and housing census, which will measure the changes that have occurred since 1981, especially the consequences of the break- up of the Soviet Union – this socialist island nation’s key source of economic support – 11 years ago.

The census, which was originally to be carried out in 1991, will assess the effects of the decade-long economic crisis – the worst to hit Cuba since the January 1959 triumph of the revolution led by Fidel Castro.

“No census has been carried out in 21 years. In that period, developments have taken place that have been very significant for Cuba, which will now be directly evaluated,” the national director of the census, Juan Carlos Alfonso, told IPS.

Alfonso, who heads the Centre of Research on Population and Development in the governmental National Office of Statistics, said it was necessary “to determine what has happened in terms of housing in Cuba, how the labour environment has changed, how the economic situation has affected the family. In short, how life has changed.”

After September 1981, when the last census was carried out, the Cuban population experienced a decade of stability, before the tough years that followed the disintegration of the Soviet Union and east European socialist bloc.

The 1990s, described by some economists in Cuba as the lost decade, brought a return of unemployment, an opening to private enterprise and increase in self-employment, a slump in construction of housing, and widespread shortages and scarcity.

Besides daily power outages and frequent interruptions of piped water, Cubans have experienced a plunge in the real value of their wages, the legalisation of the dollar, and the creation of a system of sales of goods and services that can only be purchased with U.S. dollars.

Many have attempted to flee the crisis by going abroad, mainly to the United States. The outflow of illegal emigrants peaked in the August 1994 “rafters” exodus, when around 30,000 people tried to reach the United States in makeshift watercraft.

The economic crisis also led many to flock to the nearest provincial capital or to Havana. But in 1997, the government issued a decree regulating internal migration to the capital.

A decade after the start of the crisis, as the economy has begun to give off timid signals of recovery, Alfonso underlined the need for a reliable census, to help design and implement effective policies.

Specially trained university and technical-vocational school students will knock on doors around the country from Sep 7-16, asking 14 questions on housing and 21 that will assess the status of the population.

The census-takers will ask about the physical conditions of housing units, how many people live in each household, how many bedrooms there are, and “how many rooms are, in practice, habitually used for sleeping in.”

With the aim of obtaining information on basic services and living standards, the census-takers will ask what source of energy or fuel is generally used in the household for cooking and lighting, how the family obtains water, and whether the household has sewage services.

Instead of asking how many electronic appliances a family has – which could elicit untruths, as goods are frequently bought on the black market – the census-takers will ask whether there are any radios, televisions, electric stoves, refrigerators, washing machines, telephones, computers, fans, air conditioning units, irons or blenders in the household.

One of the novel aspects of this year’s census is a question on whether there are any mentally or physically disabled persons living in the household – information that Alfonso described as “sensitive” due to its potential significance to the country’s social programmes.

“Besides evaluating how many college graduates we have, the census will enable us to find out how many of them are working in jobs related to their studies, and how many people work, are looking for a job, or have more than one source of employment,” he added.

The census will also provide more specific data on the aging of Cuba’s population of 11 million, 14 percent of whom are over 60.

In addition, it should shed light on internal migration flows, the number of couples living together without being married or separated without getting divorced, the increasing number of female heads of households, and the makeup of the population in terms of skin colour.

With the aim of maximising the scope of the survey, people who have authorisation to live and work outside the country, but who maintain legal residency here, will also be included in the census.

“We are working to achieve the greatest possible coverage, so that no one is included twice, but everyone is surveyed. To do that, we are counting on the good faith of the population,” said Alfonso.

Regarding fears expressed by some that the census could be used by the government as a means of detecting housing set-ups that are illegal under Cuba’s socialist system, Alfonso stressed that Cuban laws guarantee the confidentiality of the census.

“The information gathered cannot be used for any other purpose,” he underlined. Besides, the census is “based entirely on people’s statements, and the census-takers will not ask for documents” to prove the legality of living arrangements.

Cuban laws prohibit private individuals from buying or selling housing units, and only similarly sized homes can be swapped, in order to ensure that no commercial transaction has been involved.

Building homes can also involve breaking the law, since construction materials are not freely sold in Cuba, and are often removed from state-run companies and traded on the black market.

In addition, the decree on internal migration passed in 1997 to regulate the possibility of moving to Havana means that anyone living in the capital without a residency permit is in an illegal situation.

To inform people of the aims of the census, authorities began to distribute more than three million pamphlets this week containing the census questions, along with other information.

Next month’s will be the 18th Census on Population and Housing carried out in the history of Cuba. The first was conducted in 1774 and 1775.

The government has earmarked 6.4 million dollars and 40 million pesos – on par with the dollar at the official exchange rate – for the census. The United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) also provided advice and a limited amount of funds for equipment and training.

“In one month, we hope to start making available the preliminary census statistics, and the final report should be ready by July 2003,” concluded Alfonso.