Population and Demographic Characteristics

Population can be defined as the number of people living in a defined area at a time. Apart from knowing the total population of an area, it is necessary to consider its characteristics. Some of these characteristics may include sex distribution, age distribution, and age-sex structure, amongst others. All levels of government need information on age and sex composition of the population in planning and provision of services. This section seeks to bring out data and information on some of the characteristics of the population of Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam District.

Population Size and Distribution

Per the PHC 2010, the total population of Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam District is 138,046 and forms 6.3 percent of the population of Central Region (2,201,863). The males (64,418) make up 46.7 percent whiles the females (73,628) are 53.3 percent of the population of the district. The proportion of the district’s population living in rural localities is 68.1 percent as compared to the total rural population of 58.3 percent for Central Region.

The district has a youthful population (15-35 years) of 29.4 percent of the total population. Also, per PHC 2010, about 42.0 percent of the population is under age 15 and 15.5 percent (21,397) are under 5 years. Accordingly, the population of the district as at 2017 is projected at (160,761) using the district population growth rate of 2.2% per annum. The sex ratio is 87.5 percent which is an indication that for every 100 females, there are approximately 88 males in the population. The age group with the highest sex ratio (102.9) is 10-14 years and that with the lowest (43.8) is 95-99 years. Dependency ratio is 97.8, in other words for every 100 people aged 15-65 years, there are approximately 98 people depending on them for survival. Dependency ratio is less in urban localities (91.9) than in rural localities (101.1). These figures are evidenced in the table below: (See annex for projected population using the district population growth rate for (2018-2021)).

Table 9: Population of District by age, sex and locality

Source: Population and Housing Census 2010

Fertility

In the draft report of PHC 2010, total fertility is the average number of live births among 1,000 women in their child-bearing years (15-49). In other words, it is the average number of children a woman would bear throughout the whole of her productive years. Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam District has a Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 4.0 whilst central region has TFR of 3.6.

The General Fertility Rate is the number of births in each year divided by the mid-year population of women in the age groups 15-44 and 15-49. The crude birth rate (CBR) is also defined as the number of births in each year divided by the number of people in the population in the middle of that year. General Fertility Rate (GFR) of Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam District is 115.5, which is higher than the regional GFR (105.3). GFR in Central Region is higher in rural areas (120.4) than in urban areas (90.8) and AjumakoEnyan-Essiam District is not an exception

Crude Birth Rate in Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam District is 26.3 which is lower than the central regional crude birth rate of 26.8. The crude birth rate in central region is lower in urban areas (25.0) than in the rural areas (28.4).

Mortality According to PHC 2010, the highest mortality rate for both male and female is at age 70+, with 54 deaths per every 1000 males (0.054) aged 70+ and 34 deaths per every 1000 female (0.034) aged 70+.

Overall, mortality rate is higher for males than females, except for age bracket 15-19 years where the female mortality rate (0.003) approximates that of the male (0.003). The mortality rate for males under 5 years (0.051) is more than twice that of the females (0.019) within the same age bracket.

According to PHC 2010, total number of deaths recorded in the district in 2010 was about 1,828 people of all ages. Mortality is highest for those under 5 years old that is people aged 1-4 years, (773, 42. 3%).The next is for those in the age group 70 + years (323, 17.7%). Furthermore, mortality is high for males (1,144, 62.6%) than for females (684, 37.4%). Crude death rate (per 1000) as of 2010 in the district was 3.24 and that 30.7 percent of deaths are caused by unnatural means (Accident/violence/homicide/suicide).

Economic Activity

This section outlines data on the economic activity status of the people in Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam district using figures and results from the PHC 2010.

Characteristics as to the nature, size, type and composition of the labour force are critical factors in the production of goods and services. The activeness and involvement of labour force is a key driver of economic growth. The rate at which the labour force participates in production of goods and services may be driven by demographic, cultural, cyclical factors, including government policies and programmes.

Labour force participation rate can be explained as the measure of the proportion of a country’s working population to engage in an activity in the labour market by being employed/working or looking for work.

This information is required for planning purposes by the government towards determining the kind of intervention to take in the district to bring about economic growth. This will also give information on training needs of the labour force, the rate of recession and retirement of proportions of the labour force from active economic activity, among others.

Population =15 Years by their economic activity status and sex Table 10 shows the Population 15 years and older by their economic activity status and sex. The population aged 15 years and older (80,122) is 58.0 percent of the total population (138,046) of the district.

The table reveals that 74.3 percent (7 people out of every 10 ten people) of the total population 15 years and older are economically active. The economically not active group (those not working and not seeking employment) make up the remaining 25.7 percent. The proportion of males who are economically active is 74.0 percent and that of the female proportion is 74.6 percent.

According to the table, 45.0 percent of the economically-not-active group is in full time education i. e, actively studying in one way or the other. Thus, it may be said that full time education accounts for the economically not active status of most people. The proportion of economically not active males in full time education (51.7%) is higher than that of females (35.7%). The proportion of females who are economically not active due to home duties (household chores) is 22.1 percent and that of males is 10.8 percent. There are more females who are economically not active due to home duties. Also, the Table shows that 8.6 percent of the economically not active are disabled/sick. The proportion of females who are disabled in this category (9.2%) exceeds that of the males (7.8%).

The employed are 96.5 percent of the economically active population. Of the employed, only 0.2 percent does voluntary work without pay and the proportion of both male and female in this category is the same (0.2%). The proportion of employed who are males (96.7%) is slightly higher than females who are employed (96.3%).

The proportion of females who have worked before and are seeking work (47.4%) is more than the proportion of males in this category (35.9%).

Table 10: Population 15 years and older by activity status and sex

Source: Ghana Statistical Service, 2010 Population and Housing Census.

Population, 15 years older by sex, age and activity status

Table 11 shows the population 15 years older by sex, age and activity status. Per the table, the age group with the highest population 15 years and older (18.2%) is 15-19 years. This is the same for both male (21.5%) and female (15.7%). This means that much of the population 15 years and older are teenagers. Per the table, there is consistency for age brackets with the highest or lowest employed, unemployed or economically not active, irrespective of the sex.

Age group 25-29 years’ account for the highest population of the employed 15 years and older (11.2%), and age group 60-64 years account for the least (5.3%). The situation remains the same when analysed from the gender perspective. Age group 25-29 has the highest proportion of employed males (11.4%) and the highest proportion of employed females (11.0%). Age group 60-64 years has the least proportion of employed males (5.1%) and the least proportion of employed females (5.5%).

Age group 20-24 years account for the highest unemployed population 15 years and older and 55-59 years represents the least (1.5%). It is the same for the sexes. The highest proportion of unemployed males is 20-24 years (31.3%) and the least proportion is from 55-59 years (1.7%). The highest proportion of unemployed females is 20-24 years (31.0%) and the least proportion is from 55-59 years (1.4%)

Age group 15-19 years has the highest proportion of the economically not active (44.6%). This is not bad since this age group is made up of teenagers who are expected to be in full time education. The least proportion of the economically not active (1.6%) are 45-49 years old. The situation is mirrored from the sexes. The highest proportion of the economically not active males is 15-19 years (52.4%) and the least proportion is 45-49 years (1.4%). The highest proportion of economically not active females is 15-19 years (38.7%) and least proportion is 45-49 years (1.8%).

The proportion of males who are employed is 71.6 percent compared to that of females (71.8%). The proportion of males not employed is 2.4 percent compared to 2.8 percent for that of the females. And the proportion of the males economically not active is 26.0 percent as compared to 25.4 percent for the females. The proportions are higher for females except for the economically not active status.

Table 11: Population 15 years and older by sex, age and activity
  
Source: Ghana Statistical Service, 2010 Population and Housing Census.

Migration

Migrants are defined as people born outside the district. The total number of migrants (32,591) forms 23.6 percent of the total population of the district (138,046), of which the total number of migrants, 65.6 percent were born elsewhere (that is outside the district) but in Central Region. This group of migrants forms the highest proportion of all migrants in the district. Amongst those born in Central region, 28 percent have resided for 1-4 years. This group also has the highest proportion for those that stayed for 20+ years. This means that most migrants born in Central Region tend to stay longer in the district as compared to the proportions of other groups of migrants.

Migrants born in Upper West form the least of migrants (0.9%). The highest proportion of this group has stayed for 1-4 years. This group also has the least proportion staying for 10-19 years (4.9%). Also, 2.3 percent of the migrants (750) were born outside the country. For all migrant groups, the highest proportion stay for 1-4 years and the least proportion stay for 10-19 years or 20 + years.

Gender Equality

Gender inequality in favour of males is pervasive in the district. The life of the girl-child and women in the district is over burdened with feeding the family, child care and housekeeping. Women are further disadvantaged due to limited access to factors of production i.e. land, credit and employment opportunities.

Consequently, women are generally marginalized in public, social and economic life. The combined effects of societal biases and other economic hindrances have resulted in the slowing down of the advancement of women empowerment. Majority of women therefore continue to operate under very difficult conditions. Many are engaged in petty trading, hawking and or being home makers. Few are engaged in the public sector and even these are mainly in the secretarial grade.

Despite their weak position in the society, women play dominant roles in societal development, in the economic, political and social fronts. Their economic empowerment and improvement in their income levels will obviously have positive multiple effects within their households, particularly on children. However, the women of the Ajumako Enyan Essiam District lack access to resources they need to address these issues. The economic empowerment of the women of the district should therefore be one of the highest priorities to be tackled during the plan period.

The actions that must be taken to empower women in the district are well within the capabilities of the Ajumako Enyan Essiam District Assembly and development partners. The current plan therefore seeks to make the Ajumako Enyan Essiam District Assembly woman:

? A key economic player
? A decision-maker, a planner and entrepreneur, and
? A power in her own life in the District.

This strategic initiative will provide the opportunity to create lasting change in the social status and wellbeing women of the District.

For one thing, women are prone to discrimination in their reproductive role because of polygamy, early marriages and patriarchy. In another vein the weak economic position of women expose them to prostitution, neglect and other forms of abuse like widowhood inheritance, and exclusion from decisionmaking process. For instance, there are few women in management positions in the Assembly.

Culturally, men and women are inhibited from taking joint decisions at the household family and community level. This calls for culturally sensitive approaches to planning and management of development programmes. Such an approach will help educate both men and women on health, education, and obnoxious cultural practices like Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), early marriages, elopement and widowhood rites and inheritance. This will also promote mutual respect between the male and female as partners in development and members of the human role who deserve equal human, legal and political rights, justice and security

Poverty has remained a persistent feature/characteristic of the life of women in the District. The combined effects of societal bias and other economic hindrances have resulted in the slowing down of the advancement of women. Majority of women therefore continue to operate under very difficult conditions. It therefore suggested that a community based support system should be established for women. This may include representatives from the unit committees, traditional rulers, religious leaders and recognized opinion leaders who will provide support for victims of violence and other harmful traditional practices in the communities.

Settlement systems

The Built-Environment The Built-Environment or Brown environment essentially describes towns and villages with substantial mass of people and endowed with residential, educational, civic and cultural, commercial infrastructure and other socio – economic facilities and social amenities.

Spatial planning techniques, thus, the application of town and country planning principles are the main tools used to address the issue of appropriate land-use planning and zoning for safety, comfort, health, and compatibility in land uses and activities within towns, cities and other types of human settlements.

The focus of the District Assembly is the provision of services and urban land use management systems, environmental sanitation and waste management. Over the years, the District Assembly has collaborated with the land use agencies to prepare layouts to guide the structure of urban morphology, growth-direction and rate of growth, orderly development as well as ensure the promotion of effective and efficient environmental sanitation and waste management especially for Ajumako and Bisease towns. Despite the past efforts made by the district and some land use agencies to produce a structural plan and layouts for all the sectors of the two towns, it has not been possible for spatial planning to keep pace with the increasing urbanization and infrastructural development. In the final analysis, there are manifestations of slapdash development, congestion and other land use problems with their associated issues of environmental degradation, pollution and natural disaster-prone situation across the district.

On housing development, bungalow-type buildings are springing up particularly along the Ajumako - Mankessim road (where the UEW campus is located) and some peripheries of the town.

There had not been any known existing sector layout to guide the growth and orderly development of Ajumako town. This has always been as a result of the absence of land use management agency for the district and the inadequate capacity of the concerned departments of the district in the face of increasing urbanization.

The Building Inspectorate unit of the Works Department of the Assembly is poorly staffed and lack requisite capacity and competence to cope with the higher growth rate of physical infrastructural facilities including kiosks and temporary structures.

There is therefore, an increasing level of congestion along the major routes due to poorly sited temporary kiosks, billboards, telephone/Electricity poles and all types of street furniture. The major central crossroad and the main Lorry Park generate big volumes of vehicular and pedestrians’ traffic giving rise to serious pedestrian/vehicular conflicts especially on market days

Though the town cannot be described as an urban centre, overall quality of the buildings range from good for the Government Residential Area along the Ajumako-Assasan road, around the University Campus to very poor for houses around the Chiefs palace, the durbar ground sections, where houses are simply just lumped up together into one big compound. There are neither routes nor spaces in -between houses. This makes it impossible to provide utilities especially, water pipe lines, electricity and telephone, fire service tender movement in case of any fire outbreak and ambulance services. The situation also affects environmental sanitation and increases the risk of the spread of communicable diseases. Lack of adequate spacing of housing units prevents ventilation in between houses and this give rise to communicable diseases and poor environmental quality. There is inadequate drainage, outlets for bath house water, and other household sanitation facilities especially in around the Chiefs palace and the durbar ground sections where the housing units were built with mud walls many years ago, and are now dilapidated.

As a district, it is necessary for proper land use planning and enforcement of housing and building codes and regulations to facilitate the laying of pipes for water, provision of electricity, construction of drainage and provision of sanitation services. The current trend suggests that, the internal road network and Lorry Park will require relocation and or provision of satellite market.

The peripheries will require extension of drains, access roads and other utilities and above all the adoption and enforcement/application of appropriate building codes for harmonized development.

Spatial Analysis

The spatial analysis of the district presents the settlement hierarchy and their existing functional relationships using population and the level of services of each settlement.

A further dimension of this type of spatial analysis is the existing and future functional relationships between towns and settlements within the District. As the district capital, Ajumako town performs political and administrative functions, and offers district level technical, financial (banking), and commercial (whole sale) services and activities partially due to economies of scale and partially due to geo-political advantages. About 31.9 percent of the population is in urban localities and 68.1 percent are in rural localities.

Total household population of the District (136,633) is 6.5 percent of that of Central Region (2,113,766) and 0.6 percent of the country (24,076,327). Furthermore, the number of households in the District (35,106) is 6.6 percent of total households in Central Region (526,763) and 0.6 percent of total households in Ghana (5,467,054). While 32.7 percent (11,477) of households in the district are in urban localities, 67.3 percent (23,629) are in rural localities.

While 26.8 percent (7,051) of houses in the district (26,343) are in urban localities, 73.2 percent (19,292) are in rural localities. Even though the rural population is higher, the population per house is higher in urban (6.1%) compared with rural (4.8%) localities.

Average household per house (1.3) in the district is below that of the country (1.6) and the region (1.5). However, the urban average household per house (1.6) is the same as for the country (1.6). In addition, average household size (3.9) is below that of the region’s (4.0) and the country (4.4). Average household size in rural localities (4.8) is higher than that of urban localities (3.8).

The critical issue is the overwhelming imbalances both in population and the location of functions that exist between Ajumako town and the other towns and settlements within the District. For effective and equitable geographical distribution of developmental resources, it will be prudent to develop inter-mediate settlement sizes. This is achievable if conscious efforts would be made to direct investment resources for the upgrading and development of functional activities.

Land Use Management

Ajumako Township has not got very good arterial road network linking already demarcated sectors and other towns and villages. Towns and villages are classified into 1st, 2nd and 3rd class residential areas based on the available environmental conditions using the following set of criteria: (i) Availability of approved layout; (ii) Good and orderly development; (iii) Availability of socio-economic facilities; (iv) Good environmental practices; (v) Good housing types and conditions; (vi) Accessibility to homes; and (vii) Availability of drainage systems.

There have not been any available clear cut stratified classes of these sectors and towns in the district as there are only pockets of well laid building structures. The University Campus and its surroundings, the Assembly Bungalows along the Accra road among others could be described as a First Class Residential Area. These areas could be developed into one of the stratums but rapid urbanization has impacted negatively on this area in recent years because of the construction of residential building in a haphazard manner with no access route and drainage system.

The Chiefs Palace and its surroundings, the Durbar Ground and its environs are the only sectors identified as Second Class Residential Area. The area has degraded because of erosion, poor environmental sanitation and overcrowding in homes due to increased population growth. Several houses have become dilapidated and the absence of household toilet facilities has resulted in open defecation. There is also a very deep and filthy gutter caused by erosion running through some parts of the community. Walls of houses are constructed of mud/mud bricks with neither strong foundations nor drains. Many houses in most villages and towns in the district lack sanitary facilities. The major issue is the absence of credible layout and land use plans for large parts of the municipality.