Where Do the Most Cuban Americans Live?

No group in this series clusters as tightly as Cuban Americans. Of the 2,593,343 people of Cuban origin counted by the U.S. Census Bureau, Florida alone holds 1,630,295, roughly 63 percent of the national total. Everything about the map traces back to a single event: the 1959 revolution and the waves of exile that followed it. Miami became the receiving city, and it never stopped being the center of gravity.

Largest Cuban populations by metro area

Largest Cuban populations by city

Miami is the anchor, and it isn't close

The Miami metro area is home to 1,155,991 Cuban Americans. That one metro accounts for nearly 45 percent of every Cuban American in the country, and it sits more than seven times larger than the next metro on the list. When people talk about Cuban America, they are mostly talking about South Florida.

The city-level numbers show where the density really lives. Hialeah leads every city in the nation with 166,572 Cuban Americans, ahead of the city of Miami itself at 139,430. Both are majority-Cuban communities in daily life, where Spanish is the working language and the exile generation built businesses, parishes, and political machines from the ground up.

Westchester counts 33,477, Tamiami 33,350, Kendale Lakes 31,063, and Kendall 26,669. These are suburban and unincorporated pockets of Miami-Dade, and together they form a continuous Cuban American belt that few other groups can match anywhere in the country.

Florida's other centers

Miami is not the whole state of Florida. Tampa holds 153,077 Cuban Americans, the second-largest metro nationally and a community with roots that predate the exile itself, going back to the cigar-rolling neighborhoods of Ybor City. The city of Tampa counts 30,935. Farther out, Orlando has 76,266 and Cape Coral on the southwest coast has 59,171. Four of the top six metros in the country are Florida metros, which is why the state total climbs so far above everyone else.

Where the numbers go outside Florida

Step past the state line and the counts fall off a cliff. Texas ranks second among states with 150,621 Cuban Americans, less than a tenth of Florida's figure, and much of that sits in Houston at 70,058. California follows with 98,684, concentrated in Los Angeles at 45,450.

The Northeast keeps a real presence rooted in earlier migration. The New York metro holds 151,078, third among all metros, with 41,757 in the city of New York itself. New Jersey counts 94,637 statewide, long a secondary hub anchored by places like Union City, and New York State adds 84,627. Out west, Las Vegas has drawn 39,173, a newer destination for families leaving South Florida.

Georgia rounds out the top states with 41,946, a figure smaller than the single city of Hialeah. That comparison says everything about how this group is distributed. One suburban Florida city outweighs an entire state's Cuban American population.

Reading the concentration

Unlike migration streams that spread across many job markets over decades, the Cuban arrival was concentrated in time and place, funneled through Miami, and reinforced by every wave that came after, from the Maridel boatlift generation to the rafters of the 1990s. Chain migration pulled newcomers toward existing family, and the community stayed put. The result is a population where the top state holds nearly two-thirds of the national count and a single metro holds nearly half.

To see the full ordering, compare the largest Cuban population metros, the largest Cuban population cities, and the largest Cuban population states. You can also line up any two places side by side using the compare tool to see how Hialeah, Tampa, or Houston stack against each other.

Sources

Population figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey. Rankings referenced in this post: largest Cuban population metros, largest Cuban population cities, and largest Cuban population states.