The latest report from the statistics office showed that Cuba’s population in 2007 was 11,237,154, nearly 1,900 less than the 11,239,043 that were counted in 2006.

The last year of population growth was 2005, when the island had 11,243,836 people.

Cuba has not experienced a similar drop since the 19th century, when the population shrank as a result of the 1833 cholera epidemic, the Ten Year War of 1868-78 and the final war of independence from 1895-98.