This means Ghana has a youthful population and an indication for the country to provide services, including education and health, that would address their needs, it explained.

This was disclosed by the acting Director, Demography of the GSS, Odei Gyebi, yesterday, at the dissemination of the 2022 GDHS report on household water and sanitation, fertility and family planning.

Mr Gyebi further explained that the revelation meant that the population of the country would continue to grow at a certain pace because its larger population were those within that age group.

2022 GDHS report

The 2022 GDHS data was obtained from a nationally representative sample of 18,540 households distributed across all 16 administrative regions and 261 districts of the country.

The survey conducted interviews with 17,933 households; 15,014 women, aged 15 to 49 in all selected households, and 7,044 men, aged 15 to 59 in half of the selected households.

The fieldwork was conducted from October 17, 2022, to January 14, 2023.

School attendance

He said the report also showed that 82 per cent of children from seven to 12 years were in primary school with the figure higher in children in urban areas than in rural areas.

For senior high school (SHS), he said 56 per cent of children 13 to 18 years were in SHS, with 63 per cent in urban areas, while 48 per cent were in rural areas.

Regarding the net attendance ratio in terms of gender parity, he said the report showed that 98 per cent of primary schoolchildren were female students as against 100 per cent for males.

At the SHS level, the report identified that there were more females in SHS than males, as it is 100 males to 105 females.

He said the report revealed that 75 per cent of children under age five had their birth registered with civil authorities.

Households

Touching on other areas of the report, he said it identified that 37 per cent of households were headed by women, while the average number of members of households was 3.5.

He said 83 per cent of the country’s population had access to electricity, while 84 per cent of the population had at least basic drinking water service.

“24 per cent of the population has at least basic sanitation service; 58 per cent of the population has appropriate management of household excreta; 44 per cent of the population has a handwashing facility on the premises with soap and water,” he said.

The Deputy Government Statistician, Dr Faustina Frempong-Ainguah, making a presentation on fertility and family planning, said the total fertility rate of the country had decreased from 4.2 children per woman in 2014 to 3.9 children per woman in 2022.

She said 15 per cent of teenage women aged 15 to 19 had ever been pregnant.

The UNFPA Country Representative to Ghana, Dr Wilfred Ochan, said the findings of the 2022 GDHS report offered a midpoint for all concerned to reflect on the journey towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

He said a look at the report showed that Ghana was making progress although at a slow pace.

The Chief of WASH UNICEF, Ghana, Ramesh Bhusah, congratulating the GSS on the good work done on the report, said data was the epicentre of the right decision, explaining that if one did not have up-to-date data, the right decision could not be made.

There were remarks from representatives of the Ghana Health Service, the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, the Regional Institute for Population Studies and the University of Ghana, on the presentations made.