Introduction

A country’s population composition greatly influences its needs and wellbeing. All levels of policy formulation need information on age and sex composition of the population in planning and development and in provision of services. Population size, composition and age-structures are important in understanding the migration fertility and mortality dynamics. A country’s population composition is the description of the population according to characteristics such as size and age-sex structure.

This chapter provides information on the municipal’s population size, the distribution by sex and locality of residence (urban/rural) of the population as well as the sex ratio differentials across the various age groups. The age-sex structure, including age dependency ratios, fertility, migration pattern as well as mortality is also discussed.

Population Size and Distribution
Population distribution by sex

Table 2.1 shows the population size by locality of residence by sex and sex ratio The total population of the Municipality in 2010 is 93,584 and it represents 3.6 percent of the total population of Eastern region. The distribution of the population by sex indicates that the male population is 44,875 (48.0%) and the female population is 48,709 (52.0%). This translates into a sex ratio of about 92 males to 100 females (92.1). The sex ratio at birth is about 106 males to 100 females but this decline as the population is ageing resulting in more females than males for older ages.

About 51.7 percent of the population are in urban areas (47,968) while 48.3 percent reside in rural areas (45,616). All the urban population can be found in Nkawkaw, the municipal capital and its suburbs with the rural population scattered in over one hundred localities. The concentration of the urban population within Nkawkaw Township makes it one of the most compact localities in the Eastern region ranking second to Koforidua in terms of population and 20th in the country in terms of urbanization (MLGRD Habitat Survey Report, 2010).

 Age dependency ratio

Table 2.1 also shows the age dependency ratio for the municipality and for rural and urban localities. The municipality has a total age dependency of 80.9. This means that 100 persons in the working age group (15-64) cater for about 81 persons in the dependent age groups (0-14 and 65 years and older). Table 2.1 further indicates that the male age-dependency ratio of 66.9 is lower than the female (72.0) while that of rural age-dependency ratio of 87.2 is higher than urban localities (66.9).

Age-Sex Structure

The most important demographic characteristic of a population is its age-sex structure. Figure 2.2 shows the age-sex structure of the Municipal’s population.

The pyramid illustrates the expected pattern of declines in the populations in each group with advancing age as it is the case in most developing countries. It has a broad- base showing that a large new cohort is born every year as displayed at the bottom of the pyramid at age group 0-4 years. As cohorts age, they lose members (through death or migration or both). The narrowing of the population pyramid as it peaks shows this small number of elderly persons at older ages.

Another characteristic of the Municipal population pyramid is that females form the majority across almost all the age groups especially at the older age groups. The pyramid also shows that age groups 5-9 and 10-14 have almost the same proportion of females’ members.

Fertility, Mortality and Migration

 Fertility

Fertility refers to the actual birth performance of a woman during her productive age period (15-49 years). The total fertility rate (TFR) which is widely used in fertility analysis is sometimes also called the fertility rate or period total fertility rate (PTFR) of a population. It is the average number of children that would be borne to a woman over her lifetime if she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) throughout her lifetime.

The result from the 2010 census presented in Table 2.2 indicates that Kwahu West has TFR of 3.3. This means that a woman in her child-bearing years in the municipality will give birth to about three children. This rate is less than the regional rate of 3.5 but almost the same as the national rate of 3.3.

Table 2.2 also shows the General Fertility Rate (GFR) of the municipality. This is the number of live births per 1,000 women whose ages range from 15 years to 49 years in a given year. The GFR for the municipality is 95. It is lower than the regional rate of 103.9 live births per 1000 women. The Crude Birth Rate of 24.5 of the municipality is one of the lowest in the region.

The 2010 PHC asked females aged 12-54 years the number of children ever born (CEB) alive in the 12 months preceding the census. For lifetime fertility, females 12 years and older were asked to report on the number of children they have ever borne alive. They were also asked the number of surviving children they have had. Table 2.3 presents female population 12 years and older by age, the children ever born, the children surviving and sex of child.

The results indicate that 89,569, children of both sexes were born alive to 34,546 females of all ages with 2.6 as Mean Children Ever Born (MCEB) (2.6 on average per woman). Of the number of children ever born 78,420 children (87.5%) survived (an average of 2.3 per woman). Female children ever born are less (44,419) than their male counterparts (45,150). In contrast, female children surviving (39,338) are more than male children (39,082). In general, CEB increases across older age groups of women with the exception of age group 55-59 years.

Mortality

Mortality is one of the three components of population change. The level and pattern of mortality is a reflection of the health status of a population.

The Kwahu West Municipality recorded 659 deaths in households with a crude death rate of 7 deaths per 1,000 populations. This crude rate is lower than regional average of 8.2 deaths per 1,000 populations.

Causes of death

Table 2.5 shows the causes of death by district in Eastern Region. The total number of deaths occurring in the Municipality is 659. The Table further shows that deaths that occur in the municipality as a result of accident/violence/homicide/suicide are 8.8 percent of all deaths in the District. This proportion is lower than the regional average of 10.4 percent.

Age-sex specific death rates

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 rate (ASDR) is computed as a ratio of deaths of people in a specified age group, for example deaths among the 30-34 year-age group to the population in that age group (30-34 years) multiplied by 1,000.

Figure 2.5 describes the pattern of mortality across the different sections (age groups) of the municipal’s population. The ASDRs generally rises with increasing age from 44-49 years then sharp increase from 65-69 reaching a peak at age 90-94 years. The figure indicates that male mortality is generally higher compared to female deaths especially at older ages.

Migration

Migration is one of the components that influence change in the number of inhabitants of a particular area at a given time. The migratory movements of the population can be gathered from birthplace (the locality of usual residence of the mother at the time of birth) and place of enumeration data. Table 2.6 presents information on birthplace by duration of residence of migrants. The table shows that there are 37,725 persons (migrants) who were enumerated in the Municipality. Of these total migrants, 21,858 were born elsewhere in the Eastern region whilst the rest born elsewhere in other regions or outside Ghana.

With regards to duration of stay 30.9 percent have lived in the Municipality for 1-4 years. Fewer of them (12.6%) have lived for less than one year. Most of the migrants living the Municipality had come from the neighbouring regions: Ashanti (4,101), Greater Accra (2,552) and Volta (2,041) regions.