Distillers Cuba
A one-page guide to Cuba for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Havana
- Official languages
- Spanish
- Currency
- Cuban peso (CUP)
- Time zone
- UTC-5 (UTC-4 summer)
- Area
- 109,884 km²
People
- Population
- 10.9 million (2025)
- Population growth
- -0.4% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 77.2%
- Aged under 15
- 15.0%
- Aged 65 and over
- 17.0%
- Life expectancy
- 78.3 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$107.4 billion (2020)
- GDP per person
- US$9,605 (2020)
- Economic growth
- -1.06% (2024)
Climate
Tropical, moderated by trade winds. Dry season roughly November to April, rainy season May to October; average about 21 C in January and 27 C in July. Hurricanes are most frequent in September and October, which matters for warehousing and shipping.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- 16
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 5.38 litres of pure alcohol (2020)
- What people drink
- Beer 41%, wine 5%, spirits 54% (2022)
- Traditional drinks
- Rum (ron), Rum-based cocktails (mojito, daiquiri, Cuba libre)
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); Cuba raises alcohol/tobacco import tariffs (Directorio Cubano, Jan 2024); Havana Club (Wikipedia); Wikipedia: Cuba; World Bank Open Data API (population, area, GDP, growth, inflation); Our World in Data / WHO GHO alcohol per capita; Wikipedia: Legal drinking age. Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.