Population

The District has a total estimated population of 82,345(2010, Population and Housing Census Report) 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. The District should mainstream population issues into the current plan to ensure balance development.

Population Distribution by Age and Sex

The age-sex structure indicates that children under 15years in the district constitute the highest cohort of the population of 52,050 which represents 39.9 percent of the population followed by 30-59 years with 35,352 (27.1%). The age group 15-24 years (youth) recorded 22, 568 (17.3%) percent while Age 25-29 recorded 8,871 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 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 625.78 square kilometers, which is translated into a population density of 44 Persons per square kilometers. 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’s therefore requires that facilities should be strategically located to serve scattered settlements.

Migration (Emigration and Immigration

Gender equality

Gender mainstreaming is one of the social development issues which create equal opportunities for both sexes and vulnerable groups to thrive. This enhances equality among men, women, girls and boys in society to influence, participate in decision-making process and benefit from the development interventions. The District population has more females than males and so calls for specific projects and programmes to improve the girl-child education, women empowerment, people with disability etc. However, there are factors that negate equal participation in economic processes and decision-making, inequitable distribution of resources across gender composition in the district.

Assembly will collaborate with NCCE, Department of Social Development to focus on providing legal education for women rights violations and create quick referrals systems among the actors to police, judiciary and non-governmental organizations. There will be programmes to educate market women on economic, marital, property rights and child maintenance. The girl-child education is to be targeted and supported with STMES while sensitize traditional authorities to moderate the treatment of widows. Priority will be given to the education of parents, PTAs, SMCs and DEOC on the importance of girl-child education. Capacity building will be organized for both men and women in entrepreneurial skills to make them employable.

Settlement systems

Scalogram Analysis

The spatial location and distribution of service and their inter-linkages in the district was carried out with the aid of the scalogram analysis. The scalogram shows the analysis of the distribution of functions/services.  The scalogram is non-qualitative which only indicates the presence of facilities in each settlement in order to guide development decision-making related to the choice of project location. The scalogram, which is a matrix showing selected settlements and the respective functions they perform in a district, provides an in-depth knowledge about the adequacy and variety of functions performed by each of the selected settlements.

It also helps in the determination of hierarchy of settlements and the nature of spatial integration they exhibit in the district. The tool also helps in determining the hierarchy of settlements and the nature of spatial integration they exhibit in a district.  To identify the presence or absence of services and facilities within the district, the settlement functional matrix (scalogram) was used.  By this, the settlements were ranked based on different types of facilities in the settlement.

The settlements were ranked in a hierarchy based on the variety of the aforementioned services in the scalogram.  Anyinam has the highest number of services in the district.  It is necessary that the district focuses on equitable spatial development.

The scalogram analysis for the district shows there is an unequal distribution of facilities and services. These services and facilities are concentrated in the major settlements with the rest of the settlements accounting for few facilities, services and functions. Development planning policy should therefore focus on the following areas such as minimizing the inequality in the distribution of facilities and services minimize dominance and ensuring equitable spatial development. This will ensure a spatial balance and an efficient economy. The figure below shows the scalogram analysis of facilities, services

For the analysis, 9 settlements (representing communities with population 800 and above people were used. Thirty (34) services and facilities, under education, health, water; energy, post and telecommunication, finance, agriculture, etc sectors, were identified and considered as shown in the matrix is shown in above scalogram. Based on the variety and level of the aforementioned services in the scalogram, settlements were ranked in a hierarchy. Hierarchy one (1) has the highest number of services in the district, totaling   18 to 28 out of 34 facilities considered. A centrality index was calculated from the scalogram for all the 37 settlements, and four communities that fall within the first hierarchy have access to 18 to 28 facilities and services out of 34 considered.

The third hierarchy has between 13 to 15 of the facilities and services and the fifth and last hierarchy has 3 to 10 of the services and facilities  Anyinam has the highest   centrality index of 28 followed by Sekyere had a centrality index of 18. The analysis revealed that even though there is a linkage between population concentration and distribution of services, some settlements with higher population lacked certain facilities.  However, some of the settlements are not far from settlements where the facilities and services they lacked are located. The district must make efforts to provide services and facilities in areas where they are not currently available even though the population threshold of some of the settlements does not qualified for provision of certain socio-economic infrastructure.