One in ten structures in Ghana is either a kiosk or container – Census reveals
The recent Population and Housing Census (PHC) revealed that about 11% of structures in Ghana are kiosks or metal containers.
Many of these kiosks and containers are abodes for people, reflecting a result of a lack of affordable housing in a country that is now said to be inhabited by 30.8 million people.
The share of kiosks in Ghana is 2.8% while 8% are metal containers. Nearly 1% of structures are categorised as “other”.
Containers are either welded from scratch for entrepreneurial and/or housing purposes or are former shipping containers converted for the same purposes.
However, about 79% of structures are conventional (largely brick and mortar) while 9.7% of structures are wooden.
Meanwhile, 20% of structures are thought to be uncompleted, among which are 7.7% of these are without roofing.
In all, 57% of all structures in Ghana are homes or residences. Some 2.6% of structures are for residential and non-residential purposes while 40.4% serve non-residential needs.
The number of households in Ghana has grown five times since 1970. At the time, there were 1.8 million households in the country but there are now about 10 million homes.
The number of people in a household has actually decreased since 2000 and we now have just an average of 3.6 people in a home.
Revelations on population statistics
Greater Accra Region has now become the most populous region in the country for the first time since 1970, after recording 13,752 people more than the Ashanti Region.
The population in Greater Accra now stands at about 5,446,237, while that of the Ashanti region was 5,432,485.
Greater Accra’s population constituted 17.7% of the 30.8 million inhabitants recorded in the country, with the Ashanti region’s population being 17.6%. This means Greater Accra had 1% inhabitants more than the Ashanti region.
Per the data provided in the preliminary report of the census, it was only the Greater Accra and Ashanti were regions whose population crossed five million.
At a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, September 22, the Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, said, “these regions are both almost twice (1.9) times the size of the third most populous region, Eastern Region.
Meanwhile, the Central Region is now the fourth most populous region following the splitting of the former Western, Brong Ahafo and Northern Regions who were previously more e populous than the Central Region in 2010.
The four most populous regions make up over half (54%) of the total population, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) further stated.
The population of the Eastern region was 2,917,039, while that of the Central region was 2,859,821.
The Ahafo Region is the least populous region, taking the place of the Upper West, which had been the least populous in all the previous post-independence censuses.
The Savannah and North East Regions are the second and third least populous regions respectively, with a population of 649,627, and 658,903 in their respective regions.