Poll from Cuba offers insights into secluded country

WASHINGTON - Cubans overwhelmingly approve of their country's health care and education systems but are less optimistic about their personal freedoms, according to a new poll.

In a rare insight into the understudied Communist nation, Gallup researchers conducted 1,000 in-person interviews with Cubans living in Havana and Santiago, the two largest cities, in September. They did not do interviews in rural areas because of the poor transportation system. Gallup did not seek Cuban government approval.

The survey is part of the Gallup World Poll that will sample opinions of 95 percent of the world's population over the next 100 years. The last Gallup poll in Cuba was in 1994.