Over 70,000 children aged 5 to 9 years in Ghana engaged in economic activity in 2021 – GSS

The Ghana Statistical Service(GSS) has disclosed that a whooping number of 76,439 children aged 5 to 9 years were engaged in economic activity in Ghana.

The report indicates that children aged 5 to 9 years worked an average of 19.8 hours which is about 4 hours per weekday whiles children engaged as paid apprentices worked the highest number of hours, on average 48.4 hours.

This was almost twice the number of hours worked by contributing family workers, who worked an average of 25.0 hours.

The report says that in total,  419,254 children aged 5 to 17 years were engaged in economic activities in Ghana in 2021.

Children aged 5 to 17 years worked an average of 29.2 hours in the seven days preceding census night.

Children aged 15 to 17 years worked an average of 35.2 hours, while children aged 10 to 14 years worked an average of 26.5 hours which translates to about 5 hours per weekday.

Children in the service sector worked an average of 36.8 hours, while those in the agricultural sector worked an average of 25.6 hours.

The GSS also found that 153,773 children aged 5 to 17 years engaged in economic activity had never attended school. Of this number, 37,963 children were aged 5 to 9 years.

In all, 94,748 children aged 5 to 17 years engaged in economic activity were also attending school during the census.

The data was captured during the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC).