Cuba

Cuba: Deeply Dated Economic Figures, Weak Governance Scores

Cuba's fact bundle is notably dated relative to other countries in this set. GDP is recorded at $107.35 billion for 2020, per the World Bank's World Development Indicators, with GDP per capita of $9,605 the same year, against a more current population figure of 10.98 million for 2024. No government debt figure is present in this bundle. Reserves data is strikingly old: the World Bank's WDI series lists $144.02 million, dated to 1960 — a figure from 65 years before this briefing's reference point and not usable as any indication of current reserve holdings.

Military spending data is also dated. SIPRI puts Cuban milex at $128.61 million, or 2.876 percent of GDP on SIPRI's own GDP series, for 2018 — seven years behind the 2025 milex figures used for most other countries in this set. That ratio should not be checked against the World Bank's $107.35 billion GDP figure above, both because SIPRI calculates its GDP denominator separately and because the two figures are drawn from different years (2018 versus 2020). The Correlates of War National Material Capabilities (NMC) dataset lists 49,000 active personnel as of 2022 and a composite index of national capability (CINC) of 0.0011 for that year.

Governance indicators are weak. V-Dem's 2025 data (v15) scores Cuba at 0.176 on electoral democracy, 0.057 on liberal democracy, and 0.123 on state capacity.

Energy figures show a similar pattern of mixed currency. Our World in Data's energy series lists primary energy consumption of 0.303 exajoules for 2023 and electricity generation of 19.43 terawatt-hours for 2024, both reasonably recent. Oil production (34.205 TWh) and gas production (12.229 TWh), however, are both sourced to 2016.

Data gaps

This bundle has more stale data than most others in this set: reserves (1960), GDP and GDP per capita (2020), milex and its GDP share (2018), and oil and gas production (2016) are all well behind the 2022-2025 figures used elsewhere. No government debt figure is present at all. None of these dated figures should be treated as representative of Cuba's current economic or military position.

Sources: World Bank WDI, SIPRI Milex, COW NMC, V-Dem v15, Our World in Data (Energy).