Cuba

Capital

City of Havana, with around 2 200 000 of inhabitants, located in the northwest coast of the island in front of the Strait of the Florida.

Official language

Spanish, it is spoken English quite widespreadly and in smaller measure French and Italian.

Geographical localization

Cuba is located in the entrance of the Gulf of Mexico, in the middle of Caribbean Sea, among the parallel ones 20 and 23 degrees north latitude and the meridians 74 and 85 degrees longitude west.

Total surface

110 860 km² (42 830 mi²), in fact Cuba is an archipelago formed by the island of Cuba (104 945 km² - 40 520 mi²), Island of Pines (2 200 km² - 850 mi²) and around 4 195 keys and islands with 3 715 km² (1 435 mi²), of which the bigger are:

• Cayo Largo del Sur (36 km² - 14 mi²);
• Cayo Fragoso (101 km² - 39 mi²);
• Cayo Coco (369 km² - 143 mi²);
• Cayo Romano (759 km² - 293 mi²);
• Cayo Guayaba (100 km² - 39 mi²).

Population

The total population is approximately to 11 200 000 inhabitants, with 101 inhabitants per km² (261 inhabitant per mi²). The population's 75% resides in urban areas and only the 25% in rural areas.

The Cuban population is formed basically for descending of Spaniards and African and for the mixture of both racial groups, the presence of descending of Chinese and other European immigrants as French, Poles and other, are also appraisable.

Climate

The climate of Cuba is subtropical humid, with two clearly defined stations, the dry one (winter) of November to April, and the rainy one (summer) of May to October. The annual half temperature is of 25°C, the stocking in winter is of 20°C and that of summer is of 26-27°C. During the winter season it is frequent the entrance of cold fronts with inferior minimum temperatures sometimes at the 10°C. The minimum temperatures vary between 1°C and 8.5 °C in the occident of the country and between 3°C and 12.5°C in the oriental part; the registered maximum temperatures are among 36°C- 38°C.

The rains have an annual stocking of 1 200 mm (48 inches) with around 30% of the precipitations in the winter period and the remaining 70% in the summer and in general they are but abundant in the occident of the country that in the east.

Religion

The predominant religion is the Roman Catholic, they are also practiced Protestant religions (Baptist, adventista of the seventh day, evangelists, etc) which have had certain growth in the last years, and they are also practiced religions and Afro-Cuban cults originated in the sincretismo of the Catholic religion and the religions African conductions to Cuba for the black slaves in the time of the slavery.

National currency

The national currency is the Cuban weight that is exchanged to reason of 26 by American dollar, although in the practice they are used 3 currencies freely: the Cuban weight (national currency), the convertible weight whose parity is of 1:1 with the American dollar and the American dollar that it is the currency of use current in establishments and tourist services (hotels, restaurants, rents of cars, taxis, servicentros, etc.), and it is even used thoroughly by the Cuban population in the daily life. A tourist will usually make all his transactions paying with American dollares.

Economy

The Cuban economy is based on the agricultural activity, the tourist activity, the mining and the industry; the main productions of the country are: raw sugar, tobacco in branch, tourist services, alcoholic drinks, tobaccos (cigars) and cigarettes, nickel, coffee, citric, perfumery and derived products of the fishing.

The gross internal product of the country is of approximately 16 600 million annual pesos with a stocking of 1 500 pesos for inhabitant. For their weight in the creation of the GDP the industry is the economic but important activity with 29%, they continue him the social services with 23%, the trade and tourism with 22% and the agriculture with 8%.