Healthcare in Cuba - Comparison of Pre- and Post-revolutionary Indices

Comparison of Pre- and Post-revolutionary Indices

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 as follows (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 (all World Bank data).

The mortality rates for children under five in 2007 were as follows (World Bank):
Cuba, 6.5;
World, 68.01;
Latin America and Caribbean, 26.37;
high-income OECD, 5.71;
United States, 7.60.

Infant mortality was 32 per 1000 live births in Cuba in 1957. 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 Organisation 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 had 128 physicians and dentists per 100,000 people in 1957. This was comparable to the levels in many European countries and allegedly the highest in Latin America. In 2005, Cuba had 627 physicians and 94 dentists per 100,000 population. That year the United States had 225 physicians and 54 dentists per 100,000 population; there was no data for Latin America as a region, but the Central American isthmus had 123 physicians and 30 dentists per 100,000.