Population size, composition and age-sex structure
Abstract
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. The 2010 Census, like all other Censuses undertaken in the country, was a “de facto” count of each person present in Ghana irrespective of nationality. The objective of this chapter is to analyse the size, composition, age and sex structure of the 2010 Census. Where data are available from previous censuses (1960, 1970, 1984 and 2000), comparisons have been made to bring out changes in these characteristics over time. The age structure of Ghana’s population is typical of a country transiting from high to low fertility. The population remains young and therefore has a high growth potential. During the transition from high to low fertility levels, populations tend to be characterized by large proportions in the reproductive years, leading to large numbers of children being born, even if these women have on average only 2.1 children each (replacement level). Women in the reproductive ages (15-49 years) will constitute a comparatively large group in the population because they would have been born before the onset of fertility decline. Furthermore, there has been a steady decline in the total age-dependency ratios since 1984, implying a decline in the proportion of the population which contributes to the ratio as a result of declining fertility. Apart from 1960 when there were more males than females, all the subsequent censuses recorded more females than males, as expected.
Cite this
APA
Codjoe, S. N. A., & Amoah, S. (2013). Population size, composition and age-sex structure. In Ghana Statistical Service (Eds.), 2010 Population and Housing Census. National Analytical Report (pp. 50–67). Ghana Statistical Services.
Harvard
Codjoe, S. N. A. and Amoah, S. (2013) ‘Population size, composition and age-sex structure’, in Ghana Statistical Service (eds) 2010 Population and Housing Census. National Analytical Report. Ghana Statistical Services, pp. 50–67.
BibTeX
@incollection{codjoe2013population,
author = {Codjoe, S.N.A. and Amoah, S.},
editor = {Ghana Statistical Service},
title = {Population size, composition and age-sex structure},
booktitle = {2010 Population and Housing Census. National Analytical Report},
year = {2013},
pages = {50--67},
publisher = {Ghana Statistical Services}
}