Introduction

It is always imperative that the size, composition and distribution of any population be analyzed to facilitate development planning, programming, policy formulation and implementation. The changes in a particular population are mainly through fertility, mortality and migration levels, which to a large extent, are influenced by the age and sex composition. With the current decentralized governance system and administration of planning in Ghana, it will be desirable that statistics be provided on the size, growth as well as spatial distribution, patterns and trends of the population. The objective of this chapter is to analyze the population size, composition, age-sex structure, fertility, mortality and migration using data from the 2010 Population and Housing Census.

Population Size and Distribution

The population of the Kwahu East District by age, sex, and locality of residence is presented in Table 2.1. These characteristics are examined in the sub-sections that follow. In some cases simpler tables were derived from Table 2.1 to enhance the analysis of the characteristics.

Population size, sex and distribution

The results of the 2010 PHC indicates that the population of the district is 77,125 accounting for 2.9 percent of the total population in the Eastern Region. Of the total population, 48.8 percent are males and 51.2 percent females.

Majority (67.1%) of the total population live in the rural localities while 32.9 percent live in urban localities, reflecting the rural nature of the district. In terms of locality by sex, 45.8 percent of the urban population are males as against 54.2 percent females. In contrast, more males than females live in rural areas (50.2%) as compared to urban areas (49.8%).

Sex ratio

The sex ratio is the ratio of males to females in the population, the balance of the sexes being 100. Table 2.2 shows that the sex ratio of the district is 95.2 for the district compared with the regional average of 96.2. This means that for every one hundred females in the district, there are about ninety-five males. It is observed that the sex ratio in the urban areas (84.8) is lower than that of the rural areas (100.8).

Age-Sex Structure

Table 2.3 shows the distribution of the population of the District by age group and sex. The distribution shows a youthful age structure with a relatively large proportion of the population under 15 years (39.5%) and a small proportion of older people 60+ years (10.8 %). The age group 25-29 years have the lowest proportion of the district’s population with only 6.3 percent. The age structure in terms of sex follows almost the same pattern of age distribution e except that there are relatively more elderly persons (60+ years) in the female than the male population (12.8% as against 8.7%).

Figure 2.1 is a population pyramid depicting the age-sex structure of the district. The pyramid indicates a broad base, which narrows as the population aged. The figure indicates that the district’s population have a youthful structure with a broad base consisting of large numbers of children and a conical top implying a small number of elderly persons. The figure further shows that a large new cohort is born every year as displayed at the bottom of the pyramid (ages 0-4 years). As people aged, they inevitably lose members either through death or migration or both. With increasing age, the structure looks slightly thinner for the males than for the females, indicating that, at the older ages, the proportion of males is lower than that of the females. This age-sex pattern is characteristic of developing country populations.

Age-dependency ratio

The dependency ratio is the ratio of persons in dependent ages (children under 15 years and persons 65 years and older) to those in productive ages (15 to 64 years). The dependency ratio for the district is quite high at 90.9 (Table 2.4). This means that there are approximately 91 persons in the dependent ages for every 100 persons in the working age group (15-64 years). A large part of the dependency ratio is child dependency ratio (75.4).

Fertility, Mortality and Migration

The main components of population change are fertility, mortality and migration. These components determine the size and age-sex composition of the population at a particular point in time. Information on these components is therefore critical for planning the socio-economic development of the district. The objective of this section is to examine migration, fertility and mortality levels in the district using data from the 2010 Population Housing Census.

Fertility

Fertility refers to the number of live births to women. Fertility is affected by cultural, social, economic and health factors such as the proportion of women in sexual union, the percentage of women using contraception, the level of induced abortion amongst others. Information on fertility is crucial for district planners and others who seek to formulate explicit policies to manage the population for social and economic development.

Two types of fertility measures are used to examine levels of fertility in the district. These are current fertility measures and cumulative fertility measures. Current fertility measures such as total fertility rate (TFR) are based on data covering a short period of time such as a year (in the case of population censuses) or five years (in surveys), while cumulative measures such as mean children ever born are based on retrospective fertility data covering women’s reproductive performance over their lifetime.

Current fertility

The most commonly used measures of current fertility are the total fertility rate (TFR). It is defined as the number of children a woman would have by the end of her childbearing years if she is to experience the currently observed age-specific fertility rates.

Table 2.6 presents information on total fertility rate, general fertility rate and crude birth rate by district, Eastern Region. The TFR for the district was 4.2 children per woman. This means that a woman in the district would have, on the average, four children in her lifetime if the current age specific fertility were to continue to prevail. The district fertility rate was greater than the regional average (3.5) and the third highest in the region after Kwahu North (4.4) and Akyemansa (4.3). The District also recorded a General Fertility Rate (GFR) of 120.7 per 1000 women in the reproductive ages and Crude Birth Rate (CBR) of 26.8 per 1000 population.

Cumulative (Lifetime) fertility

The mean number of children ever born per woman is used to measure the lifetime or cumulative fertility performance of female respondents 12 years and older. Table 2.7 shows female population 12 years and older by age, children ever born, children surviving and sex of child. The table indicates that the district’s average completed family size was 3.1 in 2010. As expected, the average number of children ever born increased consistently with age of mother. The reported mean number of children for young teenage girls (12-19 years) was less than one indicating a low level of teenage fertility in the district. Overall, the distribution of the number of children surviving by age of mother follows the same pattern as children ever born.

Mortality

Mortality refers to deaths that occur within a population. Data on mortality provide an -indication of the health status of the population as well as a measure of the living conditions of the people. Overall the health status of Ghanaians has improved over the years. However, the district share with the rest of Ghana the factors that mitigate against further improvement in the mortality conditions of the population such as the persistence of poor environmental sanitation, inadequate nutrition, poor access to drinking water and the prevalence of infectious and parasitic diseases, among others.

Table 2.8 presents deaths in households, crude death rate by district for the Eastern region. The Table shows that 21,519 deaths occurred in households in all the districts within the 12 months preceding the census. This translates into a crude death rate of 8.2 for the entire region.

The Kwahu East district recorded 992 deaths in households for the period under review with a crude death rate of 8.2. The highest deaths recorded in households according to the 2010 census is in the East Akim Municipality with a crude death rate of 12.9 which is also the highest in the region. The district with the least household deaths is the Akwapem South with 357 deaths and Afram Plains has the lowest crude death rate of 4.4.

Distribution of cause of death

The causes of death in the region is analyzed using information from the district level and this is presented in Table 2.9. Kwahu East district 992 deaths and these deaths are attributed to accidents/Violence 138, all other deaths 854, with pregnancy related deaths being 19 and non-pregnancy related deaths as 973. This means that deaths occurring from pregnancy related causes are low compared to those coming from non-pregnancy related matters.

The district with the highest number of deaths is the Akuapem North Municipal with 1,317 as against a low of 357 coming from Akuapem South district. The district with the least pregnancy related deaths is Asuogyaman with 3 which implies that the district is doing very well in terms of policies to reduce maternal mortality.

Age specific death rates (ASDRs)

Death rates are calculated for specific age groups in order to compare mortality at different ages or at the same age over time. The Age Specific Death Rates (ASDRs) are computed as a ratio of deaths of people in a specified age group, for example the ASDR of 20-24 year-age is calculated by taking the deaths among the 20-24 year-age group and dividing it by the population in that age group (20-24 years), multiplied by 1,000.

Figure 2.1 shows that deaths for both male and female are high for the age group 0-4 years and dip for age group 5-9 years and become stable up to age group 20-24 years. At this point deaths to females are higher than that of males. The number of deaths begins to rise for both males and females with deaths being higher for females throughout all the age groups. The deaths occurring for the age groups 65-69 for both sexes begins to rise.

Migration

Migration refers to change in usual place of residence. A migrant is therefore defined as a person whose usual place of residence is different from his/her place of birth or previous residence. The importance of measuring migration lies in its impact on the population size, structure and distribution in the district. The migratory movements in the district are examined in this report by comparing locality of birth with locality of enumeration.

Data on birthplace by duration of residence of migrants in the Kwahu East district is presented in Table 2.5. The total number of migrants in the district is 28,575, out of which a little over half (50.7%) are born elsewhere in the region other than the place of enumeration. About 47 percent are born elsewhere in another region in Ghana and 2.3 percent are born outside the country. The table further shows that 54.7 percent of the migrants have stayed in the district for at least five years and 43.7 percent have been resident in the district for four years or less.

The largest number of migrants from other regions who moved to the district are from the Volta Region (4,738) followed by Greater Accra Region (2,897), Ashanti Region (1,865), and Northern Region (1,080). The lowest number of migrants moved from Upper West Region (215). A significant proportion of migrants from other regions (45.2%) have stayed in the district for four years or less, whereas 39.2 percent had stayed for 10 years or more. The regions with the highest proportion of migrant population that have stayed in the district for more than 20 years is the Upper West (26.0%) and Central region (23.9%).