The Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Mensah Aborampa, has underscored the need for the majority female population in the country to be targeted for the purposes of boosting economic productivity.
According to the latest population figures from the Ghana Statistical Service, GSS, there are 400,000 more women than men in Ghana.
Out of Ghana’s total population of 30.8 million, there are 15.6 million women and 15.2 million men.
Speaking to Citi News, Dr. Mensah Aborampa said the data on women must influence what he terms participatory planning.
“It is still confirmed that there are more women than men and in participatory planning, we need to take into consideration, the needs of the female population as seen in the census report. It also means that we need to increase production, and we can’t leave the women out in making sure that they also have a high sense of productive contribution for this country.”
What were the findings?
Overall, women make up 50.7% of the population, while men make up 49.3%.
Also, the ratio of 97 men for 100 women in 2021, represented a slight increase over the ratio of 95 recorded in 2010.
The 1960 census is the only post-independence census that recorded more men than women (102 men to 100 women).
Since then, sex ratios have declined until the uptick observed in 2021.
Regional gender ratios in the 2021 PHC range from 91 men for every 100 women in the Volta Region, to 105 men to every 100 women in the Western North Region.
Greater Accra has also overtaken the Ashanti as the most populous region in the latest census.
The Greater Accra and Ashanti regions both have a population size of 5.4 million each, while the Ahafo Region, the least populous region, has a total population of 600,000.
In all, 8,345,414 households were enumerated, with an average household size of 3.6 persons.
