About 80,000 girls in Ghana aged 12 to 17 years already married or living with a man
Nationally, 79,733 girls in Ghana aged 12 to 171 have been in union i.e. married2 or living together with a man according to the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC). Out of this number, 25,999 are girls of Junior High School going age (12 to 14 years). The regions with the highest percentage of girls ever in union are North East (13.0%), Savannah (10.9%) and Northern (10.6%) all with rates more than twice the national average (4.0%).
Despite free and compulsory universal basic education, almost a quarter of a million girls (244,731) aged 6 to 14 years have never attended school at all. Three out of every 10 of these girls are in the Northern Region which has the highest number of girls who have never attended school (73,516) followed by the Savannah (27,930) and North East (22,857) regions. These three regions also have the highest percent of girls currently not attending school (never attended or attended in the past) with Savannah leading all regions with 40.2% followed by the North East Region (29.3%) and the Northern Region (28.5%). The national figure is 7.8% which represents 285,271 girls aged 6 to 14 years that are not attending school. Three out of every four girls (75.8%) aged 6 to 14 years not attending school are living in rural areas.
Further, 99,150 girls under 15 years are engaged in economic activity with half of them (49.7%) out of school. Half (49.9%) of girls engaged in economic activity are in the Northern (22,647), Oti (17,694), and North East (9,153) regions which have the highest share of girls in economic activity.
On the International Day of the Girl, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) released these statistics based on the 2021 Population and Housing Census dataset. The aim is to highlight challenges preventing young girls from reaching their full potential such as early marriage, and lack of access to educational and other opportunities.
The 2021 PHC General Reports which present disaggregated data by gender on thematic areas from the census questionnaire such as Background Characteristics; Literacy and Education; Economic Activity; Difficulty in Performing Activities;
Information and Communication Technology; and Fertility and Mortality are
available to download fromwww.census2021.statsghana.gov.gh
*About the Ghana Statistical Service*
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) provides comprehensive, reliable, quality, relevant, accurate and timely statistical information to guide national development as stipulated in Section 3 of the Statistical Service Act, 2019 (Act 1003). The organisation’s vision is to be a trusted provider of statistical services for good governance and its mission being the efficient production and management of quality official statistics based on international standards, using competent staff for evidence-based decision- making, in support of national development.
The Statistical Service produces monthly and quarterly data on important economic indicators such as inflation, Consumer Price Index (CPI), Producer Price Index (PPI), and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GSS also regularly generates periodic population, housing, demographic and economic data at the locality, district, and national levels from routine surveys and censuses. The statistics generated by GSS can be utilised by a wide cross-section of users including the public sector, businesses, academia, civil
society organisations and development partners. For more information on the
statistics generated by GSS visit www.statsghana.gov.gh
