HOUSING CONDITIONS

 The 2010 PHC in Ghana included a comprehensive housing census. Among the issues covered were the number of occupied and unoccupied dwelling units, the type of dwelling and the main construction materials, occupancy status, methods of waste disposal, utilities and household facilities.

 It is envisaged that the housing data from the 2010 PHC would assist the District Authorities and other stakeholders to formulate and implement programmes and projects to improve the housing conditions in the District. The information from housing censuses also serves as a basis for evaluation and monitoring of housing conditions and needs of the population within the context of the Millennium Development Goal Seven (MDG 7). It can also be used to determine the adequacy of housing stock and assessment of the need for additional housing. It may also provide information on living conditions of those residing in temporary or substandard housing at the local level.

In this chapter, data on stock of houses, facilities and amenities of houses in the 2010 Population and Housing Census were analysed at both the district and locality levels.

Housing Stock

As shown in Table 8.1, there are 4,242 houses in the Nabdam District. The average household size is 5.6. Population per house is 8.0 persons, which is lower than the regional figure of 9.2 but higher than the National figure of 7.3.

Type of Dwelling, Holding and Tenancy Arrangement 
Type of Dwelling 

Most households reside in compound houses representing 54.1 percent. Households living in separate houses constitute 22.6 percent while those in semi-detached houses form 1.2 percent. The proportion of those living in huts/buildings (same compound) is 11.6 percent; those in flats/apartments constitute 0.2 percent, while those in huts/buildings (different compounds) constitute 9.6 percent. The importance of the headship of the households of these dwelling units cannot be over-emphasized. As many as 54.8 percent of the female headed households live in compound houses compared with 53.9 percent male headed households. (Table 8.2).

Household Size, Composition and Headship

The size of a nation’s population is mainly an aggregation of individual household members in the nation. The size, composition and structure of households are influenced by socio-economic and demographic factors such as age at first marriage and birth, length of time spent in school, cultural practices, occupation, capabilities of parents and couples. The social characteristics of a population consist of the size of a household, composition and headship, marital status, nationality, religious affiliation, literacy and education.

Household size

Table 3.1 represents the household size of the Nabdam District. The district has a total household population of 33,576 constituting 5,966 households. The district has an average of 1.4 households per house all of which are rural. The average household size of 5.6 is slightly lower than the regional figure of 5.9 percent but higher than the national average of 4.5 percent.

 Composition and headship

Table 3.2 shows that children (sons/daughters) form 47.5 percent of total membership of households, 28.9 percent of males are household heads while 14.9 percent are female household heads. Headship of household constitute 21.8 percent with the proportion of household member who are spouses (wife/husband) constituting 10.7 percent. Adopted children constitute only 0.2 percent of household members.

 Household population by structure

And sex Table 3.3 presents the structure of the population by sex in the district. The extended family system which in most cases is routed in cultural beliefs is relatively high in the district. The table indicates that the proportion of the nuclear family (23.4%) is lower than the proportion of the extended family (42.2%). This implies that the values of the extended family system are still cherished in the district.

The table further shows that the proportion of females that constitute single parents (extended) is 15.8 percent, which is slightly higher than the proportion of male single parent (extended), which constitutes 15.0 percent. Also, there are more female household heads who are single parent nuclear (10.8 percent) than their male counterparts.

Marital Status

Most cultures in the country uphold the sanctity of marriage and these virtues are an integral part of moral education given to the youth at their early ages of development.
Table 3.4 shows the population aged 12 and older by sex and marital status. It shows that majority of the people are married (51%) while 36.6 percent are never married. About 12 percent have married before, but are now either separated, divorced or widowed. A higher proportion of males (43.4%) than females (30.1%) have never married. On the other hand, married females (51.3%) are more than married males (50.8%). Again the proportion of females divorced or widowed (18%) is higher than that of males (5%).

The proportion of those in informal/consensual union/living together is the same (0.3%) for both males and females. At age 65years and older, there are more females who are widowed (62.4 percent) than their male counterparts whose proportion is 21.2 percent.

 Marital status and economic activity status

Table 3.5 shows marital status by economic activity among population aged 12 years and older. Out of the total population 12 years and older who have never married 47.7 percent are employed, 1.3 percent are unemployed and 51percent are economically not active compared with the married population, of which 85 percent who are employed, 1.2 percent are unemployed and 13.8 percent are economically not active.

 The table also indicates that 59.6 percent of females who never married are economically not active, which is greater than that of their male counterparts (44.8 percent). However, in terms of the employed population, males constitute 53.9 percent, higher than females (39.1 percent). This implies most females are unemployed and may be depending on others for their sustenance.

Nationality

Table 3.6 shows that the majority of the population are Ghanaian by birth (96.3%). Persons with dual nationality constitute only 1.5 percent. Ghanaians by naturalization constitute 0.5 percent. The proportion of male Ghanaian by birth is 96.3 percent, marginally higher than the proportion of female Ghanaian by birth (96.2%). ECOWAS nationals constitute 0.7 percent while Africans other than ECOWAS are 0.6 percent.

Religious Affiliation

Religion refers to the individual?s religious affiliation as reported by the respondent, irrespective of the religion of the household head or the head?s spouse or the name of the person. Table 3.7 shows that majority of the population are Traditionalists (47.2%), followed by Christians (46.6%), persons with no religion (4.6%). Only a small proportion of the population professed Islam as their religion (1.4%).