Population Characteristics

This section of the profile deals with the population of the Municipality and its characteristics. These include a population size, growth rates population density, rural urban split and age and sex ratios among others.

Population Size And Growth Rates

It has a population of 110,827.This is made up of about 51% female and 49% with a growth rate of 2.6%, which compares favourably with the Regional and National growth rates of 2.5 and 2.6 respectively within the same period.

Age-Sex Structure

The needs of people of different ages and sexes vary and it is important to consider this in all planning activities. The population is heavily concentrated within the ages of 0-34 years. The labour force constitutes 53 percent of population with the dependent population constituting only 46.7 percent. There is the need for the provision of adequate job avenues to meet the needs of the labour force.

Dependency Ratios

This is the ratios of the dependent population aged 0-14 and 65+ to the labour force (15-65). It could also be the ratio of the population to the proportion of the population that is actually working. The former is referred to as the age-dependency ratio whilst the latter is the economic dependency ratio.
The economic dependency ratios of 1:2.4 mean that about 12 persons depend on every five working people in the municipality for their livelihood, including the worker.

This very high economic dependency ratio implies that there will be substantial pressure on the working population thus making it difficult for them to save, invest or contribute financially to development programmes and projects.

Rural – Urban Split

Rural-Urban split indicates the proportion of population living in rural and urban areas. Table 1.8 shows the rural-urban population of the municipality.

The Asunafo North Municipal is predominantly rural with 71.6 percent of its population living in the rural areas as shown in Table 1.8. This is higher than the national figure of 56.2 percent and a regional figure of 61%.

The urban population which was increasing at a decreasing rate between 1960 and 1984 turnabout and recorded a positive change. This is due to the fact that between 1984 and 2000, Ayomso and Akrodie grew above the 5000 urban population indicator.

The implication of a large rural population to development policy is that there is the need for policies to focus sharply on rural development programmes to address the development needs of the rural areas where the bulk of the population live. Conscious efforts should also be made to encourage the growth of medium-size settlements.

Population Density

This is the number of person’s per km2 and is used to assess the concentration or otherwise of the population over a given land area. Table 2.9 shows the population density over time.

The population density of 79.5 persons per km2 is relatively higher than both the regional and national densities which are 44.8 and 79.3 persons per km2 respectively. Being an agrarian, this high density has negative effects in terms of the average land per head.