Introduction

A country’s population size and age-sex composition have broad ranging consequences for a number of socio-economic indicators such as the welfare of the people. The changes in a country’s population are mainly through fertility, mortality and migration levels, which to a large extent, are influenced by age-sex composition. Population composition is the description of a population according to the characteristics such as age, sex, marital status, ethnicity, education and occupation. It is important to analyze the size and distribution of any population since it helps facilitate development planning, programme and policy implementation. The objective of this chapter is to analyze the distribution of the population size and distribution (urban/rural), age-sex structure (including dependency ratio), fertility, mortality and migration in the Yilo Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region of Ghana, using the 2010 Population and Housing Census (PHC) data.

Population size and Distribution

The results of the 2010 Population and Housing Census (2010 PHC) shows that the number of persons enumerated in the Yilo Krobo Municipality is 87,847. Figure 2.1 shows that, the population among urban and rural localities are 27,159 (30.9%) and 60,688 (69.1%) respectively. This shows that majority of the population in the Municipality reside in the rural communities

Age-sex structure

Table 2.1 presents the population by age and sex in the Municipality. For both sexes, the most populous age group is 0-4 years with a proportion of 13.0 percent of the total population. The age group with the lowest population is the 80-85 plus year groups (0.9%).

The most populous age group for males is also the group 0 - 4, with a proportion of 13.7 percent of the male population. The age group with the lowest population for males is the 80-84 years and the older age group (0.6%). For the female’s population, the most populous age group is also in the group 0-4 (12.3%) with the group 80-84 having the lowest population (1.1%). It is observed that the population across the age groups reduces as age increases.

The data further shows that, majority of the population in the Municipality are concentrated in the young age group 0-19 years (47.4%). This situation is similar for males and females 49.8 percent and 45.3 percent respectively. For those aged 60 years and older constitute only (8.7%) of the population with males and females accounting for (7.8 %) and (9.6%) each.

Population pyramid

A population pyramid is a graphical representation of the age-sex composition of a population. Its shape is influenced by the levels of fertility, mortality, migration and coverage and content errors such as digit preference and exaggeration of age. The broadness of the base is determined by the level of fertility, while the shape is determined by mortality and to some extent migration. Figure 2.2 is a pyramid representing the structure of the total population by sex of the Yilo Krobo Municipality in 2010. The data shows that the Municipality has a youthful population with the concentration in age group 0-4 and 10-14 years. The age structure of the Municipality is relatively youthful with a broad base. The percentage in higher ages reduces gradually in subsequent age groups with a small number of elderly and more females than males at advanced years. Horizontal bars present the numbers of proportions of males and females in each age group. The sum of all the age-sex groups in the population pyramid equals 100 percent or the total number of people in the Municipality.

Age Dependency Ratio

The age dependency ratio is the relationship between the populations aged 0-14, 65 years and above and the working age (15-64) in a population. This constitute age dependency ratio, measured per 100 population. The age-dependency ratio is an indicator that measures the welfare of the people. Countries with very high birth rates usually have the high age-dependency ratios because of the large proportion of children in the population.

As shown in Table 2.2, the dependency ratio for Yilo Krobo Municipality is 77. This means that for every 100 persons in the working age, 77 people are dependent on them. This is almost the same as the dependency ratio for the Eastern region (79). The child dependency ratio in the Municipality is 65.6. This means that there are 66 children to be catered for every 100 persons in the working class. The old age dependency ratio in the Municipality is 11.5. This is as a result of few aged people in the Municipality. This means most people do not live very long in the Municipality and this is exactly what the age pyramid of the Municipality depicts.

Again, the Table shows that there are more males dependent (70) than females (62). The child ratio shows the same pattern with more male children to cater for than female children. However the old age dependent ratio shows a different scenario, with more female old women than old males to cater for.

Sex Ratio

Sex ratio of a population is the number of males per 100 female. In total, the Municipality has 42,378 (48.2%) males and 45,469 (51.8%) female. Data in Table 2.3 shows that, sex ratio for Yilo Krobo Municipality is 93.2 meaning there are about 93 males, for every 100 females. The percentage of the female in the urban area is (54.5%) and that of males (45.5%). Females still dominate in the rural area with 50.5 percent.

Fertility, Mortality and Migration

Fertility, mortality and migration, are important components of population dynamics. These three components are important for socio-economic planning and policy formulation and they are components of population change. It has also been established that specific factors such as educational attainment, occupation, marital status, place of residence and quality of health facilities exert some influence on fertility, mortality and migration, (Shryock and Sieyel, 1976). In this section, we examine the components of population change; fertility, mortality and migration. The interactions of these components determine the size and structure of population. Unlike fertility which causes an increase at only one point, births of persons aged zero and deaths can occur at any age, although the force of mortality is greater at the very young and older ages. Similarly, migration can occur at any age, but it is usually young adult males who move first and are often joined by their families.

Fertility

Fertility is directly determined by a number of factors which in turn are affected by a many other factors: social, cultural, health, environmental and economic. Table 2.4 shows the reported Total Fertility Rate, the General Fertility Rate and the Crude Birth Rate in the Municipality. 

The Crude Birth Rate (CBR) is defined as the number of births in a given year divided by the number of people in the population in the middle of that year. The General Fertility Rate (GFR) is the number of births in a given year divided by the mid-year population of women in the age groups 15-49 per 1,000. An age specific fertility rate (ASFR) is defined as the number of births to women of a given age group per 1,000 women in that age group. It is usually calculated for 5-year age groups from 15-19 years to 45-49 years.

The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) which is widely used in the analysis is the average number of live births among 1,000 women exposed throughout their childbearing years (15-49 years) to the schedule of a given set of age specific fertility rates, assuming no women died during the childbearing years. In other words, it is the average number of children a woman will have given birth to by the end of her reproductive years if current fertility rate prevails.

According to Table 2.4, the Total Fertility Rate is 2.9 births per woman, and the General Fertility Rate is 90.1 births per 1000 women while the crude birth rate is 22.8 births per 1000 population for the Municipality. These rates are the lowest compared to the regional rate and among the lowest reported rates in all 26 districts in the region.

Children ever born and Children surviving

Table 2.5 describes the female population 12 years and older by age, Children Ever Born, children surviving and sex of child. This is an indication that children below 15 years are bearing children as teenagers Policy makers will also have to address child bearing among children just like they do for teenagers since this affects the child’s attendance at school and career developments of the child’s mother.

From the Table it is interesting to note that there are more males than females for all ages for Children Ever Born (CEB) except for ages 45-49 years which recorded 34 more females than that of the males. This is similar to that of the region which also recorded more males than that of females for CEB for females’ age 45-49 years. As the years in age of child bearing increases, the average number of children ever born to a woman also increases. This means age in child bearing years is directly proportional to the number of children given birth to. Also for age 60 years and above have an average is about 6 children to a woman (5.6). This is because, the older a person is, and the likelihood that the person has a lot of children in Yilo Krobo Municipality.

There is a sharp increase in the number of children born by women from age 15-19 (581) to age 20-24 (3,306). This means that most people in the Yilo Krobo Municipality start giving birth at the age of 20 years. More males are born in the Municipality as compared to the females.

The Children Surviving shows that, of the Children Ever Born, the more the children are given birth to, the greater the number of children ever surviving and vice-versa. Ages 12-14 years had almost no child surviving as compared to age 60 years and older having about 4 children surviving.

Mortality

Mortality refers to the deaths that occur within a population. The probability of dying in a given period of time period is linked to many features such as age, sex, race, occupation and economic status. The incidence of death can reveal much about a population’s living standard and health care. The death rate (crude death rate) is the number of deaths per thousand people in that population in a given year. The factors that have been selected for consideration in this section concerning changes in mortality indicators include infant mortality, under-five mortality and under-one mortality.

Deaths in the Household

Table 2.6 presents the number of deaths that occurred in households within the Municipality 12 months preceding census by age, cause of death and sex. Out of 87,847 deaths in the households in the total population 1,198 deaths occurred in the Municipality. The Crude Death Rate (CDR) for the municipality is 13.6. . This is higher than that of the regional rate.

Distribution on Causes of Death

The 2010 PHC collected information on causes of death in the Municipality and the whole country. Data on Table 2.7 indicates that, death due to accident, violence, homicide or suicide in the Municipality accounts for 9 percent, while other causes constitute 91.0 percent of deaths in the district.

Age-Specific Death Rates (ASDRS)

Age-specific death rate by sex is the number of deaths per age group by male and female populations. Figure 2.3 shows age specific death rates for the Municipality. The age specific death rates for both females and males is high in the age group 0-4 age group but decrease as age advances to 34 years. This rate picks up again from 34 years (17.6) and drops to (16.4) at age group 40-44 and then to the highest of 75 at age 70 plus to 74.6 for males and 47 for females. The female age-specific death rates are, however, higher than that of the males. Again, age group 50-54 death rates of females are higher than those of males.

Migration

Migration is the movement by individuals or groups of people from one area to another or across a specified boundary for the purpose of establishing a new permanent or semi-permanent residence. This could be either outside one’s country (immigration/ emigration) or within one’s country (internal migration). We also have out-migration which refers to the proportion of the population born in the region who currently or usually resides in other regions and in-migration which refers to the proportion of residents of the region who were born in other region besides the one they live in.

Information in Table 2.8 shows that, the place of birth by duration of residents of migrants who were enumerated on census night (26th September, 2010) in Yilo Krobo Municipality is 27,474. Out of this about 69 percent which is equivalent to 19,045 persons are born in the same region but leaving elsewhere other than their place of birth in that same region (intra-regional migration).

With respect to in-migrants, the Volta, Greater Accra and Ashanti regions have relatively large in-migrant areas to the Municipality. Volta region has 2,429 in-migrants, Greater Accra region has 1,931 and Ashanti region has 1,188 persons respectively. The least in-migrant are from Upper East and Upper West regions i.e. 77 and 57 persons respectively.

The duration of stay in an area by migrants can influence the Municipality either positively or negatively. The Table further shows that, most of the migrants (almost 30%) have stayed for a period of 1-4 years. About 22 percent of the migrants have stayed there for 20 years and above. Almost 18 percent (17.7%) have stayed for 10-19 years and 17 percent have stayed for 5-9 years. Only about 15 percent have stayed less than a year. Again, the Table shows that, about 2.2 percent representing 609 persons in Yilo Krobo Municipality are born outside Ghana with 12.2 percent having stayed for less than a year, 31 percent for 1-4 years and 21.5 percent for 10-19 years with 17.1 percent who have stayed for 20 years and above.