Statistical Service Releases Highlights Of 2021 Population And Housing Census

The Ghana Statistical Service has released highlights from the first three volumes of the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) General Report which presents the main census results.

A release presented highlights from volumes 3A, 3B and 3C of the General Report affirming among others that Ghana’s population is now a little over a 30.8million.

Under Volume 3A, which deals with the Population of Administrative Units and data on present population size, sex composition and population density by region, district, and type of locality (urban/rural) Ghana’s population size is given as 30,832,019.

Greater Accra, Ashanti, Eastern, and Central Region have more than 50 percent of the population, while urban population increased nationally from 50.9% in 2010 to 56.7% in 2021 with almost half (47.8%) the increase in the urban population in Greater Accra and Ashanti regions. 

The annual population growth rate between 2010 and 2021 is 2.1 percent, the lowest since independence and varies from 3.7 percent in the Northern Region to 1.0 percent in the Eastern Region. 

The average household size, according to the data, decreased between 2010 and 2021 in both urban (from 4.1 to 3.3) and rural (from 5.0 to 4.0) areas.

Under volume 3B, which presents statistics on age and sex profile by region, and type of locality highlights include the fact that nationally, females outnumber males by 431,139. 

However, males outnumber females in six regions -Western North, Western, Ahafo, Oti, Savannah and Bono East – regions.

 Ghana’s population age structure is transitioning from one dominated by children (0- 14 years) to one dominated by youth (15-35 years) while there is a higher concentration of youth population in the urban areas. 

According to the highlights, a total of 17,931,673 (58.2%) of Ghana’s population are 18 years and older while a total of 18,619,021 (60.4%) of Ghana’s population are within the working-age bracket of 15 – 64 years.

The highlights also show that one percent (294,341) of the enumerated population are non-Ghanaians and nine out of 10 non-Ghanaian population (270,838– 92.0%) are from ECOWAS countries. 

One out of every eight (80.8%) married persons have not registered their marriages while substantially more women than men are separated, divorced or widowed. 

Meanwhile, approximately two-thirds (68.6%) of the population have health insurance coverage with higher coverage for females (72.6%) than males (64.5%).

The 2021 PHC General Report contains disaggregated data on the main census results and features 11 volumes presenting findings from the different modules of the census questionnaires.