Over 11, 000 Ghanaians displaced as a result of socio-political factors – GSS report

The 2021 Population and Housing Census report from Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to commemorate the International Migrants Day revealed that about 11,717 Ghanaians are internally displaced due to socio-political factors in the country.

According to the report, the internally displaced persons (IDPs) represents about 55.2% whiles those displaced through natural disaster represents 44.8%.

The report further says one in every ten, representing 10.7% of the IDPs have stayed less than one year in their current place of residence whiles six in ten also representing 60.8% having been displaced for 5 years or more.

“More than half of (57.3%) of IDPs reside in four regions: Greater Accra (19.2%), Northern (14.1%) Ashanti (13.7%) and Central (10.2%) regions”, the report noted.

The GSS again reported that, adult literacy rate for IDPs is twice that of persons that are not displaced, thus, four in every ten indicating 41.3% of IDPs with age between 15 years and older are not literate as compared to two in every ten representing 21.9% are non-IDPs.

“The percent of children aged 4 to 17 years who have never been to school is three times higher for IDPs (15.2%) than non- IDPs (4.8%). The census also provides statistics on international migrants in Ghana”, the report said.

The census also provides the leading drivers of immigration to Ghana which are employment (36.9%), settlement (22.7%) and marriage or family unification (25.0%).

The report shows that 49.8% of adult males frequently migrates because of employment while 46.9% of females also migrates for the purpose of marriage or family unification.

“A greater share of migrants is male (60.5%) compared to females (39.5%). Almost half (48.3%) of international migrants have lived in Ghana for five years or more.

Migrants mostly move from one community to another as a result of conflict in their previous community while some move into a different locality or country due to flood, famine, or drought”, the report noted.

Source: Eric Nii Sackey