On August 20th, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and the University of Ghana Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS) co-hosted a dissemination event at Alisa Hotel in Accra. The event aimed to share key findings from two recent publications and discuss the policy implications of population projections.
The first publication presented was the 2021 Population and Housing Census Thematic Report on Population Projections (2021 – 2050). This report provides population projections broken down by sex, age, and type of locality to offer insights for decision-making. The second publication was the 2024 revision of the World Population Prospects, a flagship report by the UN Population Division, providing essential population data for planning purposes.
The event highlighted three significant implications of Ghana’s national population projections. Firstly, the importance of investing in youth skills and employment to benefit from the demographic dividend was emphasized, as it is projected that at least a third of the population will be aged 15 to 35 years over the next three decades. Secondly, there is a need to focus on savings for retirement, pensions, and social security, considering that by 2050, one in every 10 persons in Ghana will be aged 60 years or older. Lastly, the event stressed the necessity for renewed focus on urban planning and rural development as 15 out of the 16 regions are projected to have populations exceeding a million, with six regions expected to remain predominantly rural.
The release of district projections highlighted the expected increases in the youth and working-age populations across most districts, with significant upticks in the school-going age population. Conversely, declines in the size of the elderly population were projected in some districts.
The District Ranking of Micro-Level Development Indicators Report, which presents district-level differences in development indicators using data from the 2010 and 2021 Population and Housing Censuses, delineated substantial disparities across districts, with the Savannah Region identified as the worst-off region across all indicators. Furthermore, the report indicated an increase in the North-South divide in development across 13 out of the 19 indicators studied between 2010 and 2021.
The event also marked the release of district population projections for 2021 – 2050 and the launch of the Ghana Stats App, a mobile application that provides statistics at the district level on selected development indicators. This move aligns with the Vision 2057: Long-Term National Development Perspective Framework and signifies the expansion of GSS’ focus from providing statistics solely for policymakers to making statistics available for household decision-making and community awareness.
