Introduction

The main factors that affect the growth of any given population are migration, fertility and mortality which in themselves are largely influenced by age and sex. This chapter examines the population distribution of the Kumbungu District.

Population Size and Distribution

As shown in Table 2.1, the total population of the district is 39,341. The number of males (19,686) is slightly higher than the females (19,655). This gives a sex ratio of 100.2. The entire population of the district is classified as rural. A settlement with 5,000 people or more is considered urban, otherwise it is rural (GSS, 2013).

Age and Sex Structure

Table 2.1 shows the population of the district by age, sex and type of locality. The highest proportion of its population is in the age group 0 to 4 with a total population of 7,101. The total males in this age group are 3,500 and the females are 3,601 giving it a sex ratio of 97.2. The lowest proportion of the district’s population is in the age group of 95 to 99 which has a total population of 49 out of which 23 are males and 26 are females. This also presents a sex ratio of 88.5.

The population in age group 0 to 4 years is higher than that of 5 to 9, wherefrom the population begins to decline as the age increases. The trend of decreasing population continued up to the age group 60 to 64 where there is an increase. It again increased in age group 70 to 74 and 80 to 84.A decline occurred at age group 65 to 69 and 75 to 79.

Generally, one can observe a decline in population as age increases except for some few instances where there are spikes in population for certain age groups. This perhaps could be attributed to age misreporting, where people who were not sure of their ages, just reported their ages to the nearest whole number ending with zero.

Figure 2.1 is a graphical representation of the population of Kumbungu District. The broad base of the population pyramid indicates a youthful population and the narrow apex implies fewer aged persons. Higher proportions of the population are within the ages 0-4, 5-9, 10-14 and 15-19. The pyramid shows that the population in the various age groups from 20 to 85+ decreased as it ages. Further research has to be done to find out why there is a reduction in the female population in the 10-14 and 15-19 year age group. There was a sharp decline in the male population in the 20-24, 25-29 and 30-34 age groups. The bulge in the female age groups, 20-24 and 25-29also needs further investigation to un-earth the reason behind the shape since it does not follow the trend of population pyramids for developing countries. There is also a sharp decline in the age groups 55-59 and 65-69 as shown in the pyramid.

Females in the age group 0-4 are more than males. The male population in the early age groups, 5-9, 10-14 and 15-19 are more than the female population within the same age group. The situation is reversed from age group 20 to 44 where the female population turns to be higher than the male population.

Generally, males are more than females in the district. Sex ratio is the number of males per hundred females in a given population. The sex ratio for the district is 100.2, meaning for every 100 females, there are approximately 100 males for the entire population. The sex ratio varies and changes at different age groups. Table 2.1 shows that the least sex ratio of 76.6 occurs at age group 20 to 24, whiles the highest sex ratio of 132.2 occurs at age group 10 to 14.

Dependency ratio

The age dependency ratio is the ratio of persons in the “dependent ages” (generally under age 15 and over age 64) to those in the “economically productive” ages 15-64 in a population. Table 2.2 depicts the Age dependency ratio of the district as 101.1. This high dependency ratio means that there is a high burden on the economically active group. The dependency ratio however, varies with sex. The table also shows that, male age dependency ratio is 108.6 and this means that the male working class has more than one person to take care of compared with that of the female (94.1). The child dependency ratio; that is the ratio of people under 15 years to those in the age group 15-64 is 90.1. The old age dependency ratio which represents the ratio of people in the 65+ age group to those in the economically productive ages of 15-64 is 11.0.

Fertility, Mortality and Migration

Fertility

Fertility in Ghana has declined from seven children per woman to four over the last 30 years (Ghana Statistical Service, 2009).Fertility refers to the number of live births women have. The general fertility rate (also called the fertility rate) is the number of live births per 1,000 women ages 15-49 in a given year. Total Fertility Rate measures the total number of children a woman would bear during her lifetime if she were to experience the prevailing age-specific fertility rates of women.

Table 2.3 illustrates the Total Fertility Rate, General Fertility Rate and Crude Birth Rate in districts of the northern region. The District has a total fertility rate of about four per 1,000, a general fertility rate of about 102 and a Crude Birth Rate of 24. Kumbungu district has a total fertility rate of 3.6, a General Fertility rate of 103.9 and a Crude Birth rate of 23.4. The district has the least number of births (920) in the last 12 months in the Northern Region.

Mortality

Mortality is another determinant of a country’s population growth that is also defined as the occurrence of death in a population. A low death rate could mean a high population growth with all other things held constant. Figure 2.1 shows the proportion of mortality in the population in Kumbungu District.

The figure shows that mortality generally decreases from birth to about age 17 for males and from birth to about eight for females. It increases slightly for males from about 17 years to 22 years and 17 years to 12 for females. It increases sharply between 42-52 years and 69 years and older. It generally shows that from birth to about eight years, the proportion of males who die is higher than that of females. And between age nine and 44 the proportion of males dying is higher and between 44 years and 64 years, the proportion of males is higher again.

Table 2.4 shows the mortality in reference to children ever born and children surviving by sex. The total number of the female population 12 years and older is 12,094. The total number of children ever born by these women is 35,002 out of which 81.3 percent survived. The survival rate for the male and female sexes is 81.1 percent and 81.5 percent respectively. The male survival rates for male children ever born to women in most age groups are higher than 80 percent, except survival rates for male children ever born to women in the 12-14, 50-54 and 65+ age groups. The same pattern was observed for female children surviving for children ever born to women in the same age category.

Figure 2.1 illustrates the children ever born and children surviving by age groups of females 12 years and older. It can be seen clearly that, children ever born reached a peak of 4,678 within the age group 40-44 and 4,564 at age group 30-34. Also, from age groups 12-14 and 15-19 where the district recorded low levels of children ever born. The situation could probably be associated to the fact that, from the early ages of 12 to 14 years, the female reproductive system would not be adequately developed to usher them into child birth. This notwithstanding, well grown up female ageing 20 years and above are physically and emotionally upright for child birth, and so having higher possibilities of child survival.

Crude Death Rate is the number of deaths per 1,000 mid-year population of a specific year. (Ghana Statistical Service, 2013). Table 2.5 shows that out of the total population of 39,341, the district recorded 343 deaths in all households. The crude death rate for the district is 8.7 per 1,000 population. This implies that there are approximately nine deaths in every 1,000 population.

Table 2.6 presents the causes of death in households in the Northern region by Districts. The Table shows that 4.1 percent of all deaths in households in the Kumbugu District were due to accident/violence or homicide whereas 95.9 percent of deaths were due to other causes.

Migration

Migration is defined as a geographical movement involving a change from a usual place of residence over a defined territory beyond a defined period (United Nations, 2012). Table 2.7 illustrates the birth place by duration of residence of migrants, as well as the number of years spent in that place. There is a total of 5,213 migrants in the district with a majority of them (i.e 4,732) born in other parts of the northern region. Three hundred and eighty-seven were born in other regions of Ghana whiles 94 migrants were born outside the Ghana.

Of the migrants who lived in the district for less than one year, 33.3 percent were born in Central region, 34.8 percent born in Greater Accra region, 34.9 percent and 35.7 percent were born in Upper East and Upper West regions respectively. About 77.0 percent of migrants born in Western region lived in the district for 1-4 years. Migrants born in Ashanti region who lived in the district for 20 years and above constitute 27.3 percent.