I travelled to Cuba on a week’s notice and went to the U.S. in the interim, so I didn’t have as much time to research as I would’ve liked. It’s my first time to the country, and while I find it is always better to research first there are times when I just “wing it”. But there are many aspects of the Cuban culture that are unique, and would confound the tourist without background information.
In the course of my (speed)reading, I was fascinated by the statistics on Cuba — health and economic indices, especially. I went to the World Health Organization’s website today and downloaded some indicators to compare them with Canada and the USA, and made a spreadsheet table.
I’ve read about the Cuban health care system, and when I was there I met a LOT of old people. They’re pretty hardy, healthy people. For one thing, they walk everywhere. According to the 2006 edition of Lonely Planet, there are 23 cars for 1,000 Cubans. By comparison, there are 815 cars for 1,000 Americans.
I find these numbers incredibly interesting, for all three countries. Click on the table and have a look at my (Flash) notes in Flickr.
Technorati tags: World Health Organization, indicators, health, Cuba
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It’s amazing that Cuba spends far less both in real dollars and per capita on their health care system, and it’s one of the best in the world. Everyone who needs medical care receives in as needed. Unfortunately, dentistry and occular care haven’t kept up.