Introduction

Population composition is the description of population according to characteristics such as age, sex, marital status, ethnicity, education and occupation. Demographic change has a broad range of consequence for the development of the Pusiga District. The changes in the District population are mainly through fertility, mortality and migration levels which to a large extent are influenced by age-sex composition. Therefore, this chapter presents details of the demographic characteristics with regards to population size and distribution, age-sex structure, mortality, fertility and migration.

Population Size and Distribution

Table 2.1 presents details on the population size by age, sex, and type of locality. The total population of the District is 57,677 out of which 27,516 (47.7%) are males while 30,161 (52.3%) are females. The age group with the highest proportion of the population is 5-9 representing 16.3 percent, followed by 0-4 age group (15.3%). The majority of the population of the District (74.4%) is between ages 0-34. From Table 2.1, it can be noted that a greater proportion of the total population of the District (78.0%) dwell in the rural areas while 22.0 percent live in the urban areas. The general sex ratio which represents the number of males per the number of females in the District is 91.2.

This means that for every 100 females there are approximately 91.2 males in the District. From table 2.1 however, the male population in the District from age 0-19 is greater than the female population. As a result, the sex ratios in the age categories of 0-19 years are higher than 100 However, from Table 2.1, the sex ratio for the other age categories begins to reduce, indicating a drop in the male population as compared to that of the female population from age 20 years and above. The sex ratio from age 20 years and above reduces below 100 to as low as 60.0.

 
Age dependency ratio by locality

Dependency ratio is an age population ratio of those typically not in the labour force and those in the labour force. High dependency ratio of a population has serious policy implications. Table 2.2 shows that the dependency ratio for Pusiga District is 108.2. Dependency ratio in the District varies among the various age groups of 0-14 (child dependency) and age 65 years and above (aged dependency). The general child dependency ratio of 94.5 is obviously higher than the aged dependency ratio of 13.7 since children constitute a greater proportion of the population in the District than the aged. The high dependency ratio (94.5) observed for age 0-14 is partly influenced by out-migration of certain proportion of the population (those within age groups 15-64) to the south in search of greener pastures, leaving behind a large number of dependents.

Large dependency ratios however translate into negative economic implications for the District and the country as a whole. The total dependency ratio for the urban (100.8) is lower than the rural (110.4). This is similar in the case of both the child dependency (urban is 88.2 and rural is 96.3) and aged dependency (urban is 12.5 and rural is 14.0).

 
Age-Sex Structure

Figure 2.1 presents details of the age-sex structure of the population in the District. The pyramid has a broad base which is typical of developing countries, indicating a larger number of youthful population and a narrow top of fewer aged. The tallest bars which represent the highest age cohort falls within age 5-9 years at both male and female population whereas the shortest bars representing the lowest age group cohort falls within 85+.

This higher proportion of the population within age group 5 -9 indicates that the population in the District has the prospect to grow for a considerable number of years. Figure 2.1 also shows that the proportion of the female population from age 25 and above is higher than the population of males in the same age cohort. As a result, the pyramid indicates the bars at age 25 and above to be broader for the females than the males. This also means that the proportion of males reduces faster than that of the females as the age increases.

Migration, Fertility and Mortality
Fertility

Fertility is the actual production of children. It is defined as the number of live births women have during their reproductive life time. In the 2010 Population and Housing Census, the data on fertility are collected from females aged 12 years and older. Table 2.3 presents the data on fertility indicators for the Pusiga district, compared with the other districts and the region.

Total fertility rate is a measure of the average number of children that would be born alive to a woman throughout her reproductive life span, given the assumptions that; she would survive the full period of her child bearing ages and that she would follow the fertility performance of each age group of women during the child bearing ages. The total fertility rate for the Pusiga district is 3.7, which is higher than the regional rate (3.4). Garu Tempane District had the highest total fertility rate (3.9) among the districts in the region.

The other fertility measures presented on the table include general fertility rate (GFR) and crude birth rate (CBR). Whereas the CBR indicates the number of live births per 1,000 of the population in a given year, the GFR is the number of live births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 49 years in a given year. The birth rate is termed “Crude birth rate” because it relates births to the general population, even including those at the age and sex groups who are not at risk of given birth. The GFR, which is more refined, is therefore a better measure to use for comparing the fertility of different populations. From Table 2.3, the GFR for the Pusiga District is 104.2, which is higher than the regional rate of 97.5. Garu Tempane also had the highest GFR (106.2) among all the districts in the region. The crude birth rate for the district is 23.9. Builsa North District had the highest CBR (23.8).

Children ever born and surviving

The total population of females 12 years and older in the District is 19,645 with higher proportions within the ages 12-29 years (47.1%).The total number of children ever born to females aged 12 years and older in the District is 60,647 children, out which 51,428 children are surviving. On the average, therefore, each female 12 years and older gives birth to about 3 children. It is also observed that averagely, there are 2 surviving children per female 12 years and older in the District.

The total population of male children ever born is 30,968 with 84.2 percent of them surviving, whereas that of female children is 29,679 and 85.4 percent of them surviving. It can therefore be deduced from Table 2.4 that 15.8 percent of male children ever born died. Similarly, it is also observed that, out of a total of 29,679 female children ever born, 85.4 percent are surviving, while 14.6 percent of them did not survive. Among all the age categories for females 12 years and older, ages 60+ years ever gave births to more children (57.8%) than any other age group followed by females within the ages of 30-44. The age group with the lowest proportion of children ever born is 12-14 (0.0%).

Mortality

Mortality relates to deaths that occur in the household during the 12 months preceding the census night. Table 2.5 therefore presents details of the number of deaths in households and crude death rate by all districts in the Upper East region. The table illustrates that Pusiga district recorded 362 deaths in households which represent 3.2 percent of all deaths (11,339) recorded in the Upper East Region in the 12 months preceding the census night. Bolgatanga municipal has the highest number of deaths (2,269) followed by Garu Tempane (1,287), Talensi (1,218) Kassena-Nankan East (1,217) and Bongo districts (1,093).

Table 2.5 also shows that Pusiga district has the lowest crude death rate of 6.3 in the region compared to the Bolgatanga municipal which has the highest crude death rate of 17.2. The crude death rate of the district is however lower than the regional rate which is 10.8.

Causes of death

The census data also indicated specific causes of the deaths that occurred during the year 2010 and these have been categorized into two. As presented in Table 2.6, deaths are either categorized as due to accident/violence/homicide and suicide which are human related causes of deaths or all other causes which include diseases and pregnancy related or natural causes.

In the Pusiga District, 86.2 percent of all deaths that occurred in 2010 are due to other causes other than human causes such as accident/violence/homicide or suicide. Bolgatanga Municipal recorded the highest percentage (41.4%) of deaths that occurred due to accidents/violence/homicide or suicide. The Pusiga District had 13.8 percent of all its deaths occurring as a result of accident/violence/homicide or suicide.

Age specific mortality rate

Figure 2.2 presents details on reported age specific death rates by sex in the District. The figure reveals that there is a decline in death rates among age cohorts 0-4 to 5-9 for both males and females in the District. The rates at which both sexes die are characterized by moderate declines and increases in death rates from age 5-54.
 However, more males are likely to die compared to females at age 55 and older as we observe sharp increases and decreases for both sexes. It is however worth noting that among all age cohorts, while males are more likely to die at 55-59, females on the other hand have their highest death rate at age 70 and older.

Migration

Migration refers to change in usual place of residence from one administrative district to another for a period not less than six months. The total number of migrants (persons who are living in Pusiga District but were born elsewhere outside the District) is 2,757 (Refer to Table 2.7). The majority of the migrants (41.5%) were born in the Ashanti Region. Those born elsewhere in the Region constitute 19.5 percent of the migrant population.
Out of the people born in the Ashanti Region, 28.7 percent of them have been resident in the District for 1-4 years. Similarly, for those born in Western Region (who constitute the least migrants in the District), 29.2 percent of them have been resident for 1-4 years.