Population Size and Distribution

The total population of Atiwa West District is 110,622 based on 2010 population and housing census. The distribution of the population in the district by sex shows that females constitute 50.6% while male constitute 49.4%. Comparing population by the locality type, there are more people in the rural areas than the urban centres. The total sex ratio is 97.7 percent implying that for every 100 counts of females in the district, there are almost 98 males. However, the sex ratio in the rural area is almost the same with 99.6 percent which shows that for every 10 females there are almost 10 males.

Age-Sex Structure

The analysis of the age-sex structure indicates that children under 15yeas in the district constitute the highest cohort of the population of 44,111 which represents 39.9 percent of the population followed by 30-59 years (27.1%). The age group 15-24 years (youth) recorded 17.3 percent while Age 25-29 recorded the lowest with 6.8 percent of the total population.

Among the male population, the age-group under 15 years (41.7%) recorded the highest whiles the age group 25-29 years (6.3%) recorded the lowest. The pattern is the same for the female population which also had persons in the age-group under 15 years (38.1%) recording the highest and the age group 25-29 (7.3%). This may probably be due to the adventurous nature of persons in that age-group to migrate outside the district and explore other places of their interest or for greener pastures. The age-sex structure indicates a broad base which narrows as the age’s increases after age 45 years. The phenomenon confirms assertion that large cohorts are born at a particular year but the members exit through either migration, death or both. For both sexes, more females than the males survive to higher ages although more males than females are in the age group 0-4 years. The pyramid shows that from the age group 20-24 the male population started reducing and the female population began to increase. The same can be said for the age group 25-29.

This may probably be due to the risky nature of jobs that males engage in which makes them more prone to death than females. From the Age group 30-34 to age group 40-44, the male population recorded an insignificant change in the population size. The youth nature of the population has implication for provision of socio-economic infrastructures that support their proper upbringing and shape their future. There is the need to provide enough pre-school and basic school infrastructures as well as expanding the primary health facilities to take care of their health needs.

Population Density

The District covers an area of 2,950 square kilometers, which his translates into a population density of 37 Persons per square kilometer. This indicates that the district is sparsely populated in except of the four largest settlements. This indicates most of the settlements may not meet the population threshold for provision of essential socio- economic infrastructure like water, school, road and health facilities among others. It therefore requires that facilities should be strategically located to serve scattered settlements.

Rural-Urban Split

The Atiwa West District is predominantly rural with about 66.7 % and 33.3 % rural and urban irrespectively.

Nature of physical Development and problems of Settlement Planning and Management

Physical Development

Physical development in the district can be grouped into two – private and Public. Individuals undertake the private development for their exclusive use (building for residential, commercial civic user etc) Public development on the other hand can be classified, as constructional works, be it building, road, bridges, culvert etc. for the general good of the citizenry. The central and local government normally undertakes these.

Private and Public physical development undertaken in the district are governed by two major developmental tools at the disposal. These are Development planning and Development Management (Control) all working through the Statutory Planning Committee (SPC). The Building Regulation LI 1630 is the legislation that regulates the issuance of Building Permit and monitoring of physical construction.

The Town & Country Planning Department and settlement planning consultants together have prepared and approved planning scheme/ lay -out by the District Statutory Planning Committee for Kwabeng. The aforementioned scheme/layout is a tool available to the Assembly through the DSPC to ensure orderly physical development in the district capital.

It must be stated that most settlements in the district do not have schemes/layout. In addition, monitoring of physical development and enforcement of legislations/byelaw on physical development is weak, mainly due inadequate equipment, transport and logistics. These have resulted in haphazard and unauthorized erection of physical structures. There is therefore the need for the District Assembly to provide adequate funding for the preparation and management of settlement schemes/layouts to guide proper settlement development so as to reduce the haphazard, uncontrolled and uncoordinated development in most parts of the district.