So, where do all these 2.5 million Cubans actually live? Is it just Miami? Spoiler alert: not even close, but Miami is definitely the star of the show. Think of it as the capital of Cuban-America, but with better weather and fewer government buildings.
Florida holds the crown with about 1.5 million Cubans, most of them in South Florida. You can’t throw a stone in Hialeah without hitting a pastelito bakery or someone arguing about baseball. It’s that concentrated.
But wait—there’s more! Other states have their own Cuban pockets. New Jersey has around 80,000 Cubans. California? About 90,000. Even Texas, New York, and Illinois have sizable communities. It’s like the Cuban diaspora decided to be a little everywhere.
The numbers game: waves of migration
Why does this number keep changing? Because migration from Cuba has come in waves, each one with its own story. The first big wave was after the 1959 revolution—people fleeing to start a new life, often with just a suitcase and a dream.
Cuban Population
Then came the Mariel Boatlift in 1980, where 125,000 Cubans arrived in just a few months. Imagine your neighbor suddenly showing up with a boatload of family and saying, “Hey, can we crash for a few decades?” That’s basically what happened.
More recently, there was the “wet foot, dry foot” policy (RIP, 2017) that let Cubans stay if they made it to U.S. soil. That policy alone sent tens of thousands of people on perilous journeys. And they kept coming.
