Greater Accra now the most populous region in Ghana with 5,446,237 people – GSS

Government Statistician Professor Samuel Kobina Annim , has announced that Greater Accra Region is now the most populous region in Ghana, with 5,446,237 people overtaking the Ashanti Region, 5432485 which has been the most populous region since 1970. Ashanti Region closely follows as the second most populous region.

These regions, according to Prof Annim, are both almost twice (1.9) times the size of the third most populous region, Eastern Region.

The Central Region is now the fourth most populous region following the splitting of the former Western, Brong Ahafo and Northern Regions who were all more populous than Central Region in The four most populous regions make up over half (54%) of the total population.

He said these while announcing the result the provisional results of the 2021 Population and Housing Census in Accra on Wednesday September 22.

The Ahafo Region is the least populous region taking the place of the Upper West which had been the least populous in all the previous post-independence censuses. The Savannah and North East Regions are the second and third least populous regions respectively.

Disparities in the population size across region have been the largest observed since 1960 when Ghana conducted its first post-independence census. In 1960, the most populous region, Eastern, was almost five times (4.63) the size of Upper West, the least populous. In 2010, the most populous region, Ashanti was almost seven times (6.81) the size of the least populous, Upper West.

In 2021, the two most populous regions, Greater Accra and Ashanti, are almost 10 times (9.6) the size of Ahafo, the least populous. There are 11 other regions that are at least twice as populous as Ahafo, and six that are thrice as populous. For Savannah and North East, there are seven other regions twice as populous and five that are thrice as populous.

The current Northern Region observed the largest change in population with an almost 50% increase over its population in 2010. The two other regions that made up the then Northern Region in 2010, North East and Savannah, had the second and third largest intercensal increases (41.7% and 38.4%) respectively.

The next highest change recorded was in Greater Accra with an addition of 35.8%. The Eastern Region, followed by the Volta Region, recorded the lowest intercensal change (adding 10.8% and 11.4% respectively to their populations).

The range of these figures highlight the regional disparities in population change from the previous censuses.

Ghana’s total population is currently 30.8 million according to the census figures.

This is up from the 30.42 million figure as of 2019. The total population for Ghana as of the last census in 2010 was enumerated at 24,658,823.

Overall, females make up 50.7% of the population and males 49.3%, giving a national sex ratio of 97 males for every 100 females.

In all, 8,345,414 households were enumerated, with an average national household size of 3.6 persons.

---3news