The Map of Cuba Phone Recharges: Where Are They From?

Every recharge that reaches a phone in Cuba traveled from somewhere on the planet. And that place is, more often than not, where a Cuban rebuilt their life far from the island.

We analyzed data from the millions of recharges processed by Fonoma since 2013, and the result maps out the contemporary Cuban diaspora: a people spread across every continent who keep helping the family they left behind, giving them the chance to stay in touch and access independent sources of information.

Where Are Recharges to Cuba Sent From?

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Europe and North America account for almost nine out of every ten recharges. That’s no coincidence, since they are the two great historical poles of the Cuban exile.

1. Europe: 46.1%
2. North America: 41.9%
3. South America: 8.5%
4. Africa: 1.7%
5. Asia: 1.4%
6. Oceania: 0.3%

Top 20 Countries That Send the Most Recharges to Cuba

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The presence of Germany, Ecuador, and Switzerland in the top 10 confirms a fact that Cuba’s official narrative prefers to ignore: for some time now, emigration has stopped concentrating on the “enemy up north” and has spread across the entire planet.

Countries That Send the Most Recharges to Cuba (2013-2026)

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1. United States: 21.5%
2. Spain: 13.5%
3. Italy: 12.8%
4. Canada: 8.5%
5. Germany: 6.7%
6. Mexico: 4.5%
7. France: 2.9%
8. Ecuador: 2.3%
9. Switzerland: 2.1%
10. Chile: 1.6%
11. Brazil: 1.4%
12. Uruguay: 1.3%
13. United Kingdom: 1.2%
14. Belgium: 1.1%
15. Sweden: 1.0%
16. Argentina: 0.8%
17. Portugal: 0.8%
18. Netherlands: 0.7%
19. Dominican Republic: 0.7%
20. Russia: 0.5%

Top 20 Cities That Send the Most Recharges to Cuba

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If the map by country already showed a scattered diaspora, the breakdown by city confirms it. Recharges to Cuba are sent from 50,000 cities across the planet.

As expected, the United States steals the spotlight with five cities in the top 20, and Miami nearly doubles the second city on the list, proving it remains, without question, the capital of the Cuban exile.

Spain follows with three, confirming its rise as the second major destination of the diaspora. But the most striking part is the variety in the rest of the list: two Canadian cities and two Italian cities rank high, and even Ecuador places another pair in the top 20, a reminder of the migratory corridor the region became in the middle of the last decade, when residents of the largest of the Antilles could travel there visa-free.

Also surprising is Montevideo ranking above Mexico City, a sign of the weight recent emigration has taken on toward the Southern Cone; and closing out the group is Zurich: a Swiss city that shows how purchasing power influences the ranking, even when the Cuban community there isn’t very large.

Cities With the Most Recharges to Cuba (2013-2026)

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1. Miami (U.S.): 5.6%
2. Madrid (Spain): 3.0%
3. Milan (Italy): 2.4%
4. Toronto (Canada): 2.3%
5. Barcelona (Spain): 1.9%
6. Montreal (Canada): 1.8%
7. Montevideo (Uruguay): 1.4%
8. Rome (Italy): 1.3%
9. Mexico City (Mexico): 1.3%
10. Santiago (Chile): 1.2%
11. Tampa (U.S.): 1.1%
12. Orlando (U.S.): 1.0%
13. Berlin (Germany): 1.0%
14. New York (U.S.): 0.9%
15. Quito (Ecuador): 0.8%
16. Guayaquil (Ecuador): 0.8%
17. Paris (France): 0.8%
18. Houston (U.S.): 0.7%
19. Valencia (Spain): 0.7%
20. Zurich (Switzerland): 0.6%

Taken together, the urban map draws the same picture as the country map: an exile that no longer fits into two or three cities, but spills across North America, Europe, and the Southern Cone all at once.

Surprises: What You Didn’t Expect About Where Recharges Come From

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Here are a few facts that very few people know about how recharges to Cuba are sent.

Recharges From 218 Countries or Territories

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The first surprise is the geographic scale. Recharges have been sent to Cuba from 218 countries and territories: practically every inhabited corner of the planet.

There are recharges recorded from places with no historical tie to Cuba or its diaspora at all: the Solomon Islands (60), East Timor (29), Vanuatu (18), Nepal (7), Mongolia (4), and even remote spots like Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean or Palau in the Pacific.

Wherever a Cuban has ended up, or anyone who ever met one, there’s a recharge.

Very Few Recharges From Venezuela

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The second surprise lies in the unexpected rankings of regions like the Arabian Peninsula, Oceania, or Sub-Saharan Africa.

No one would guess that Australia (0.30% of the total), literally on the other side of the world, has sent tens of thousands of recharges to Cuba, just like Qatar (0.31%), Mozambique (0.30%), or Botswana (0.17%).

Meanwhile, Venezuela, despite its strong state-level ties, remains nearly absent (0.04%). That’s because the country’s situation closely mirrors Cuba’s own, with an economic collapse caused by chavista mismanagement.

Recharges From Hidden Cities

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If the country map was already astonishing, the city map borders on unbelievable. Hundreds of recharges are sent from Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina), considered the southernmost city on the planet, the very end of the world, just a step from Antarctica.

Dozens come from the island of Saint Helena, where Napoleon died, a lost speck in the Atlantic halfway between South America and Africa.

Others arrive from the far north of the world: Murmansk, a Russian city inside the Arctic Circle, or Yellowknife and Whitehorse, in Canada’s subarctic territories.

In any inhabited corner of the planet, no matter how remote, there’s a Cuban worried about their family back on the island.