|
People
Population
Ghana's population, totalling over 24 million, is concentrated along the coast, in the northern areas near the border with Cote d'Ivoire, the principal cities of Accra and Kumasi, and cocoa-producing areas. The country has, on average, a population density of about 52 people per square kilometer. About 45 percent under 15 years old.
Ethnicity
Most Ghanaians descended from migrating tribes that probably came down the Volta River valley at the beginning of the 13th century. Today, there are approximately 100 ethno-linguistic groups, all further subdivided into numerous cultural and linguistic units. Major ethnic groups include Akan, Moshi-Dagomba/Dagbani, Ewe, Ga, Gurma, and Yoruba. Europeans and other non-African groups make up a small minority, as do Africans from neighboring countries.
Language
English is the official language used in government, large-scale business, national media and school beyond primary level. Indigenous African languages include Akan (Asante Twi and Akuapim Twi), Fante, Ewe, Ga-Adangme, Nzema, Dagbani, Dagaari, Kasem, Frafra, Buli, Kusaal, Sisaala, and Gonja. Most indigenous languages belong either to Kwa or to the Gur subfamily of the Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, and Volta-Congo linguistic families. Hausa, a language from Nigeria, is also used in radio and television broadcasting.
Religion
The largest groups of religious adherents in Ghana are Christians, while animists and Muslims are also significantly represented. There is complete freedom of religion in Ghana.
The indigenous Akan thought was remarkably parallel to Western thought even before they merged to form the modern Akan identity. The person exists in a trinity of the "okra" (soul), the "sunsum" (spirit), and the "honam" (body). This trinity includes a hierarchy of universal causation. There is free will of the individual, but with a determinism guided by ethics and morality. While some scholars have remarked on the cleavage between Akan and Western thought based on Akan beliefs in witchcraft, others have in fact celebrated its comparable utility. Following from this, scholars argue that Akan witchcraft gives the otherwise predetermined individual the medium for exploring a critique of new forms of economic individuals in present day Ghana. In this way, witchcraft in fact assists Akan thought in reconciling the local economy with the global market.
Health and Welfare
At 61 years of age (59.78 years for males, 62.25 years for females), life expectancy in Ghana is slightly above the sub-Saharan African average. The infant mortality rate is 51.43 deaths per 1,000 live births. Literacy is estimated to be around 57.9 percent, although this number obfuscates some degree of gender variance. Literacy is 66.4 percent among males and 49.8 percent among females.
Note that percent of GDP in this country is spent on 5.4 educational expenditures; 10.6 percent of GDP is spent on health expenditures.
The degree of risk of infectious diseases is very high in Ghana. Food or waterborne diseases include bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever; vectorborne diseases include malaria; water contact diseases include schistosomiasis; respiratory diseases include meningococcal meningitis; animal contact disease include rabies. As well, the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in this country although it poses only a negligible risk.
HIV/AIDS has not been as much of a crisis in Ghana as it has been in many other sub-Saharan African countries. About one percent of prenatal women were infected in 1990. There has been a slow but steady increase to three percent over a decade later in 2005. Clinic patients with other sexually transmitted diseases also showed a marked increase from nine percent in 1990 to 27 percent in 1998. Prevalence in sex workers increased from 37.5 percent in 1989 to 72.6 percent in 1997. These increases have given rise to concerns that the disease is starting to take a greater hold of the population.
Human Development
One notable indicator used to measure a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which is compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a ranking of 169 countries, the HDI places Ghana in the low human development category, at 130th place.
Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief at CountryWatch.com; see Bibliography for research sources.
|