Introduction

This chapter presents information on household size, composition and other characteristics of households in the district. The household concept plays an important role as a minimum unit of living arrangements of the population. Socio-cultural practices such as marriage, kinship type, religion, education and literacy also influence household formation.

Household Size, Composition and Headship
Household Size by type of Locality

Household is a unit of production and consumption of resources. The characteristics of a household such as size and composition have implications for health, productivity, security, welfare and general outlook. household size by type of locality. From the table the district has a total household population of 127,069 with 80,118 being urban and 46,951 being rural. The table further indicates that there are a total of 22,579 households,, with 39 percent in urban areas and 61 percent in rural areas. The average number of persons per household is 5.6 Again, the average household size in the rural areas (5.8) is slightly higher than the average household size in urban areas (5.3).

Household population by composition and sex

The household composition by sex of head of household in the district. The household population of the district stands at 127,069, with 64,704 male headed households and 62,365 female headed households. The nature of the composition differs markedly between male and female headed households with respect to headship, spouse and parent/parent-in-law. Heads of household constitute 17.8 percent of household members in the district; however, the percentage of male headed households (26.1%) is almost three times that of female headed households (9.1%). One in ten household members in the district is a spouse; but this increases to one in five in female headed households and reduces to less than one in 100 (0.4%) in male headed households. Parent/parent-in-law and son/daughter-in-law are more likely to live in a female headed (1.5% and 0.6% respectively) than in a male headed (0.2% and 0.2% respectively) household. 25

Household composition with respect to the child, grandchild brother/sister, step child, adopted/foster child, other relative and non-relative do not show large variations by sex of head of household. Children to the head of household constitute the largest proportion of (49.6%) of household members in the district as well as in both male (51.8%) and female (47.3%) headed households. Adopted and foster children of the head of household on the other hand constitute the lowest proportion (0.3%) of the household members.

Household population by structure and sex

Household structure refers to the type of relationship among household members who were present on census night. Household classification depends on whether it is single person household, household that consists of head and spouse only, nuclear household (Head, spouse(s) and children) or nuclear extended among others. The household population by structure and sex in the district. The district has a total of 127,069 households with more male headed households (64,704) than female headed households (62,365). Nuclear households (Head, spouse and children) form 31.7 percent of the households. Single parent nuclear forms 9.5 percent of the households.

The extended family systems form important component of the social structure of most Ghanaian societies and as such influence and shape the structure of the households. From Table 3.3 the extended family households (heads, spouse, children and heads relative) constitute 31.4 percent of the household structure. Head and spouse only constitute less than one percent of (0.8%) household structure. Single parent Extended constitute approximately 13 percent of household structure of the district.

Marital Status
Marital Status by Sex

Marital status is an important predictor of a wide range of socio-economic outcomes. In ideal situations, the presence of two parents provide acceptable conditions for the upbringing of children, as the two individually and collectively provide the social environment and support for the members of the household (GSS, 2010). This section of the report presents an analysis of persons 12 years and older by marital status, sex and age in the district. The district has a population 81,856 persons aged 12 years and older. Distribution of persons aged 12 years and older by marital status. It shows that, 44.8 percent of the said population has never married, 2.4 percent in informal/ consensual union/living together, 44.9 percent are married, 1.6 percent is married but living separately, 2.4 percent are divorced with 3.9 percent of the population widowed. Approximately, half of the population 12 years and older in the district are married.

A large percentage of the population age 12-14 years (95.4%) and 15-19 years (92.1%) have never married compared to 4.3 percent and 6.3 percent of persons in the same age categories who are married. It is also observed that, 20 out of 100 persons age 15-19 years have previously married but are currently divorced. For age (20-24) years, nearly two thirds (65.3%) have never married, 4.8 percent are in an informal/consensual union/ living together while 1.2 percent have previously been in a union. About 83 percent of persons in age groups 35-39 and 40-44 are married. It further shows that as the percentage of married persons increases, the divorce rates equally increases and even when the percentage of married begins to fall, the divorce still continues to increase.

It is also observed from the Table that as the population advances in age (60 years and older) the percentage widowed increases steadily. This explains the small percentage of aged persons in the district. Divorce and widowhood are more pronounced among females than males. As early as 15-19 years 0.1 percent of males are divorced compared to 0.3 percent for females of the same age categories. In terms of widowed, whiles only 8.1 percent of males are widowed at the age 65 years and older, 57.4 percent of females are widowed. The appendix Table 3A further illustrates that, females in the district get married earlier than their male counterparts. For instance, whiles 22.7 percent of males between 30-34 years never married, only 6.5 within the same age category of females never married.

Marital Status by Sex and Level of Education

Table 3.5 presents persons 12 years and older by marital status, sex and level of education in the district. The table indicates that about 25 percent of persons 12 years and older who are never married have no education with 59.4 and 13.5 percents attaining basic school and secondary school levels respectively. Approximately 58 percent of the populations in informal/consensual union/living together have no education at all. Similarly, there are higher percentages for married (70.8%), separated (67%), divorced (69.1%) and widowed (89%) persons without education.

In respect of the sexes, apart from females never married who have a relatively lower percentage (24.6%) of no education, females in other marital categories have higher percentages of persons with no education than males. For instance, there are 76.8 percent married females who have no education compared with 63.9 percent males.

Marital status by sex and economic activity status

Persons 12 years and older by marital status, sex and economic activity status. From the table, about 62 percent of persons 12 years and older are employed, 3.4 percent are unemployed and 34.4 percent are economically not actively married persons are in the majority of those employed 83.0 percent, followed by those in Informal/Consensual union/Living together 97.4 percent. Again persons in Informal/Consensual union/Living together constitute 5.5 percent of those unemployed and are in the majority while the widowed have the least proportion of the unemployed. For the economically not active, persons who are never married are in the majority constituted about from all the categories of marital status. With regard to the sexes, the proportion of males who are employed is 63.7 percent, higher than that of females 60.8 percent.

In respect of the unemployed on the other hand, the proportion of female is higher than that of males representing 3.7 and 3.2 percent respectively. The proportion of persons who are economically not active is higher among females who are never married, 62.4 percent than males 1 the same category 54.7 percent

   Housing

Introduction
 
The condition of houses plays an important role in population dynamics. Individuals live in buildings and dwelling units. Modern businesses are also conducted mostly in apartments and buildings. Provision of housing stock to meet the demands of the increasing population is usually the prime objective of every government.The census solicited information on housing stock, type of dwelling, holding and tenancy agreement as well as construction materials. This chapter presents a discussion on the housing situation in Pru District.

Housing Stock

The household population of the district by type of locality. The district has a total population of 129,248 located in urban (47,744) and rural (81, 4940 respectively. The total household population of the district is 127,069 and the proportions in the localities are 80,118 in rural and 46,951 in urban areas. Also, of the total number of houses in the district, more than half (11,994) are in rural areas. The population per house in the district is 7.1 comprising 7.9 urban and 5.8

The type of dwelling units in the district varies from one to another, so is the holding and tenancy arrangement. This analysis looks at the disparities in dwelling types as well as the ownership and holding/tenancy agreements that are currently prevailing in the district.

Type of Dwelling Unit

Data on the type of dwelling unit occupied by locality. The total number of occupied dwelling units in the district is 22,579, compound houses (rooms) account for 50.7 percent, separate houses account for 35.1 percent and all other types of occupied dwelling units account for less than 15 percent in the district. 53

With respect to type of locality, compound houses are the most dominant type of occupied dwelling unit for both the urban and rural locality constituting 57.6 percent and 46.3 percent respectively. Separate houses are made up of 32.8 percent of occupied dwelling units in urban localities whereas in rural localities separate houses account for 36.6 percent of occupied dwelling units. Semi-detached houses constitute approximately 5.0 percent of urban dwelling units where as in the rural areas it constitutes 4 percent.

Ownership of Dwelling 

The ownership status of all occupied dwelling units in the district, 69.3 percent of the dwelling units are owned by household members 16.2 percent owned by other private individuals, 12 percent are owned by relatives who are not household members and the rest account for 2.2 percent of other forms of ownership status. In male headed households approximately, 73 percent and 14 percent of dwelling units in the district are owned by household member and other private individuals respectively compared to 58.6 percent and 22.6 percent of dwelling units owned by household member and other private individuals respectively in female headed households.

With respect to locality of residence, ownership by household member account for approximately 50 percent of all dwelling units in urban areas while in rural areas ownership by household member accounts almost for 82 percent. Ownership by relative who is not a household member is 14.3 percent in urban areas and 10.6 percent in rural localities. There is a huge difference in ownership by other private individuals by locality. About one in three (32.3%) cent of dwelling units in urban areas are owned by other private individual compared with only three in 5 (5.9%) in rural areas.

 Holding and tenancy arrangement

Tenancy and holding arrangement of dwelling units in the district. According to the data, three major types of tenancy exist in the district: owner occupied, renting and rent free. Sixty-five percent of dwelling units are owner occupied, 19.2 percent are on rental arrangement and a further 15.4 percent rent-free. Tenancy arrangements including perching, squatting and others are quite negligible in the district. The proportion of owner occupied dwelling units in the rural areas is 77.5 percent which is far greater than that of urban localities (45.4%). Approximately 38 percent of dwelling units are rented in urban areas while in rural localities it is 7.5 percent. The proportion that occupies dwelling units on a rent free basis is 16.6 percent in urban areas and 14.7 percent in rural areas.

Construction Materials

Houses in the district are constructed using various materials; analysis in this section looks at materials used for construction of outer wall, roof and floor of dwelling units in the district. 

Materials for outer wall

The main construction materials for outer walls of dwelling units in the district are mud brick or earth (58.5%) and cement blocks or concrete (37.5%). The Table also shows that approximately 80 percent of outer walls of dwelling units in the rural areas are constructed with mud brick or earth compared with only 24 percent in urban areas. Also 73.5 percent of urban dwelling units have cement blocks or concrete outer walls whereas among the rural dwelling units it is only 14.6 percent.

Materials for roof

The main materials used for the construction of roof of dwelling units. Majority of dwelling units (62.6%) in the district have roofs made of metal sheets and about one third (33.2%) are made from thatch/palm leaf or raffia. With respect to locality, 88.6 percent of dwelling units in the urban areas have roofs made of metal sheets whereas in the rural areas approximately 46 percent of units are roofed with metal sheets. Thatch/Palm leaf or raffia accounts for 9.2 percent of roofs in urban areas while in the rural areas it is 48 percent. All other materials are not commonly used for roofing in the District for example Slate/Asbestos, roofing tiles and bamboo all together constitute less than one percent.

Material for floor

Type of materials used for the floor of a house affects the appearance, quality and health status of a house. As shown in Table 8.7, floors of dwelling units are mostly made of cement or concrete (73.4%) and earth or mud (23.7%). By locality of residence, majority (90%) of dwelling units in urban areas have cement or concrete floors while approximately 63 percent of houses in rural areas have the same type of floors.

Room Occupancy

The number of sleeping rooms occupied by households provides an indication of the extent of crowding. Crowded living conditions are likely to increase the spread of infectious diseases such tuberculosis and respiratory infections. Table 8.8 provides information on the number of sleeping rooms of households. As stated earlier, the average household size has 5.6 persons. Over ninety percent (90.7%) of one member households, over two thirds (70.1%) of household with two members, nearly half (49.6%) of household with four members and one-quarter of households with six members all occupy one sleeping room. Generally as the number of household members increases the number sleeping rooms also increases marginally.

   Access to Utilities

Introduction

This section analyzes household amenities, source of lighting, and main source of energy for cooking and cooking space, main source of water for drinking and other domestic activities, and sanitation of dwelling units.
 
Dwelling facilities: source of lighting
 
The source of lighting is one of the indicators of quality of life. As societies develop the source of lighting shifts from the use of rudimentary sources such as fuel wood to more efficient ones like electricity, Table 8.9 presents data on the main source of lighting of dwelling units in the district. There are three main sources of lighting for households namely electricity-mains (38.5%), flashlight or torch (33.0%) and kerosene lamps (27.1%). All other sources of lighting together account for less than one percent.

Dwelling Facilities: Source of energy for cooking 

The main source of cooking fuel and cooking space used by households in the district. Fuel wood (64%) and charcoal (34%) are the two main sources of energy for cooking. With respect to type of locality, 87.3 percent of rural and 29.3 percent of urban households in the district use fuel wood as their main source of energy for cooking; while 64 percent of urban and 10 percent of rural households use charcoal. 

Cooking space

Information on cooking space of households in the district. Approximately 50 percent of households use open space in the compound for cooking and 15 percent use their veranda. Only 15 percent of households have a separate room for exclusive use of household for cooking. By type of locality, 43 percent of urban and 54.8 percent of rural households use an open space for cooking. Also 10.7 percent of urban and 17.6 percent of rural households have a separate room exclusive to the household for cooking. In the urban localities, 29.1 percent of households use their verandas for cooking while just 6.2 percent of rural households use their verandas as cooking space.