Cuba a Failed State?

The news media has recently reported on President Biden's calling Cuba a failed state.  There have been demonstrations there due to the corona virus pandemic.  The Cuban president responded by pointing out that the 60 year embargo of Cuba has exacerbated shortages of medical supplies and other basic resources.  I thought I would compare how Cuba is faring compared to surrounding island nations Jamaica and Haiti and to the U.S.

The graph above is from the Gapminder Institute showing income and life expectancy for the four countries.  We see that while per capita income is much higher in the U.S. than Cuba, life expectancy in years is virtually the same in both countries with Jamaica and Haiti lagging behind.  Infant mortality rates (an indication of the health of the infant and the mother) is actually 40% lower in Cuba (4/1,000 births) than the U.S. (5.6/1,000), as seen in the table below, followed by the Jamaica (13.5/1,000) and Haiti (52.2/1,0000).  

	Income per capita	Life Expectancy (years)	Infant Mortality per 1,000 births	COVID Case Mortality %	Covid deaths per 100,000
U.S.	$56,700	78.6	5.6	1.8	185.61
Cuba	$8,130	78.5	4	0.7	17.35
Jamaica	$8,310	74.9	13.5	2.3	39.18
Haiti	$1,640	65.7	52.2	2.6	4.51

The life expectancy and infant mortality data are from the World Health Organization from 2018 before the pandemic.  Johns-Hopkins University has been tracking mortality and cases for each nation from the Coronavirus.  The case mortality is 2.6 times higher for COVID in the U.S. (1.8%) compared to Cuba (0.7%) with higher rates in Jamaica (2.3) and Haiti (2.6).  The population adjusted death rate from COVID is more than 10 times higher in the US (185.61) than Cuba (17.35).  Haiti so far has a low death rate due to a low case rate.

Some may want to dismiss these numbers from the WHO and Johns-Hopkins due to their political beliefs.  The CIA (hardly a radical leftwing organization) also does estimates of life expectancy for each country in the world.  They estimate Cuba's life expectancy to be 79.41 years.  Haiti's is estimated to be 65.61 years. Jamaica's is estimated to be 73.71 years.  U.S.'s is estimated to be 80.43 years.

You can say what you want about the political system in Cuba, the mortality data do not indicate poorer outcomes there relative to their Caribbean neighbors and the U.S.  The U.S. embargo has given the Cuban government a convenient scapegoat for their problems,  the U.S.

**Related Posts**

Income and Life Expectancy. What does it Tell Us About US?

Corona Numbers from the WHO and JHU

New Life Expectancy Data from the WHO (World Health Organization)

A Wave of Hate Groups in California? No in Washington, DC

The Southern Poverty Law Center has issued a report listing the total number of hate groups per state which they track.  The categories followed include, the Ku Klux Klan, Neo Nazi, White Nationalist, Racist Skinhead, Christian Identity, Neo-Confederate, Black Separatist, and General Hate.

California is shown to have the most hate groups followed by Florida and Texas.  All states except Hawaii have at least one.  These are also the first, second, and fourth most populous states in the US.  There is a highly significant correlation between the number of groups and the population in that state (r=0.885, p<.001) as seen in the above graph. 

When the number of hate groups in each state is adjusted for the states' population (by dividing the # of groups by the population and multiplying by one million), a different picture emerges.  The US average is 2.99 groups per million persons.  The rankings for the states plus DC are listed below.  Florida is almost exactly at the national average at 3.00 while Texas and California are below with 2.15 and 2.02 groups per million respectively.  A cubic plot was added to the graph below  and was significantly different from zero (r=.281, p=.045).

The states with the top number of groups per million have one outlier, Washington, DC.  With 15 groups for its 632,323 citizens, there are 23.72 groups per million which is almost three times higher than the next highest state, Arkansas.  It could be argued that the district is not really a State and is more of a city.  By comparison New York City has 22 hate groups for it's 8,336,697 citizens giving it a rate of 2.64.  Nearby Baltimore, MD has 7 groups for it's 621,342 citizens giving it a rate of 11.27.  My hometown, Pittsburgh, PA has 2 groups for it's 306,211 citizens giving it a rate of 6.53.  Of DC's 15 groups, four are Black Separatist (including the Nation of Islam), 3 each of White Nationalist (with names like the Center for Economic Studies), Anti-LGBT, and; General Hate, and one each of Anti Immigrant and Anti-Muslim. 

The extreme value for DC is similar to it's being an outlier for income and life expectancy.  In my most read post, I showed that it has the highest per capita income but the lowest life expectancy (2009 data).  The life expectancy of DC has since improved from 51st to 46th while the income ranking has fallen from 1st to a tie for 4th which would still make it an outlier.  I am not a sociologist so I'm not going to speculate as to the reasons for DC's high rate beyond what the data says.

The states that follow DC can be seen in the table below.  28 states are above the national average.  These are mostly in the south, west and midwest.  Vermont (at 6.39) and New Hampshire (at 5.30) are the only eastern states above the national average. My home state, Pennsylvania is slightly ahead of the national average at 3.21.

Rank		state	pop2012	Hate groups	Groups per million
1		District of Columbia	632323	15	23.72
2		Arkansas	2949131	24	8.14
3		Montana	1005141	8	7.96
4		Mississippi	2984926	22	7.37
5		Vermont	626011	4	6.39
6		Tennessee	6456243	37	5.73
7		Idaho	1595728	9	5.64
8		West Virginia	1855413	10	5.39
9		New Hampshire	1320718	7	5.30
10		Georgia	9919945	50	5.04
11		New Jersey	8864590	44	4.96
12		Nebraska	1855525	9	4.85
13		Alabama	4822023	22	4.56
14		Oklahoma	3814820	17	4.46
15		Delaware	917092	4	4.36
16		Louisiana	4601893	20	4.35
17		South Carolina	4723723	20	4.23
18		Indiana	6537334	26	3.98
19		Missouri	6021988	23	3.82
20		South Dakota	833354	3	3.60
21		Wyoming	576412	2	3.47
22		Kentucky	4380415	15	3.42
23		North Carolina	9752073	33	3.38
24		Colorado	5187582	17	3.28
25		Pennsylvania	12763536	41	3.21
26		Virginia	8185867	26	3.18
27		Arizona	6553255	20	3.05
28		Florida	19317568	58	3.00
29		Nevada	2758931	8	2.90
30		New Mexico	2085538	6	2.88
31		Rhode Island	1050292	3	2.86
32		Ohio	11544225	31	2.69
33		Maryland	5884563	15	2.55
34		Oregon	3899353	9	2.31
35		Texas	26059203	57	2.19
36		New York	19570261	42	2.15
37		Utah	2855287	6	2.10
38		California	38041430	77	2.02
39		Michigan	9883360	18	1.82
40		Massachusetts	6646144	12	1.81
41		Illinois	12875255	23	1.79
42		Wisconsin	5726398	10	1.75
43		Kansas	2885905	5	1.73
44		Iowa	3074186	5	1.63
45		Maine	1329192	2	1.50
46		Minnesota	5379139	8	1.49
47		Washington	6897012	10	1.45
48		North Dakota	699628	1	1.43
49		Connecticut	3590347	5	1.39
50		Alaska	731449	1	1.37
51		Hawaii	1392313	0	.00
Total	N	51	51	50	51
a. Limited to first 100 cases.

**Update** 

It's not just in the US where mapping applications are used to track racial incidents.  It's also done in Japan as seen in the video below.



**Related Posts**

Income and Life Expectancy. What does it Tell Us About US?

 

How do the States Stack Up on Infant Mortality? (Cross Post with PUSH)

A Statistical Profile of the Uninsured in Washington, DC, New Mexico, and Texas

 

A Geographical Represenation of the Mode and Ethnicity