The population of Cuba has very complex origins and intermarriage between diverse groups is general. There is disagreement about racial statistics. The Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami says that 62% is black; whereas statistics from the Cuban census state that 65.05% of the population was white in 2002.

The Minority Rights Group International says that 'An objective assessment of the situation of Afro-Cubans remains problematic due to scant records and a paucity of systematic studies both pre- and post-revolution. Estimates of the percentage of people of African descent in the Cuban population vary enormously; ranging from 33.9 per cent to 62 per cent'.

Cuba has a sizable number of Asian people who comprise 1% of the population. They are primarily of Chinese descent; followed by Filipino; Koreans and Vietnamese people. They are descendants of farm laborers brought to the island by Spanish and American contractors during the 19th and early 20th century. Afro-Cubans are descended primarily from the Kongo people; as well as several thousand North African refugees; most notably the Sahrawi Arabs of Western Sahara under Moroccan occupation since 1976.