Ghana 2013

Ghana Population Density

Yearbook 2013

Ghana. In early January, John Mahama was installed as Ghana’s new president. As vice president, he had only taken over the presidency temporarily when his representative John Atta Mills died in July 2012. In December 2012, Mahama won the presidential election in the first round, but the opposition party NPP (New Patriotic Party) claimed that electoral fraud occurred and appealed the election result. When Mahama took office, the Supreme Court was still investigating the issue of electoral fraud. In August, the court decided to dismiss the appeal. According to Countryaah, the court ruled that Mahama was the rightful winner in the election with just under 51% of the vote against close to 48 for NPP candidate Nana Akufo-Addo. The latter said he would respect the Supreme Court’s decision.

Ghana Population Density

In April, at least 16 people were killed when an abandoned gold mine collapsed in central Ghana. The mine must have been popular with illegal gold diggers. Ghana is one of the world’s largest gold producers. In June, the authorities arrested more than 100 people, most of them Chinese, who worked in mines and lacked a permit.

Population, society and rights

The country is going through a phase of demographic transition: the population growth rate is declining, due to a substantial stability in mortality rates and a reduction in fertility rates (3.92 children per woman, among the lowest in Italy). Sub-Saharan Africa). Infant mortality rates and life expectancy at birth (61.1 years) are positively affected by the low prevalence of HIV (around 1.3%). The population is urbanizing, and is concentrated in the Accra region and Ashanti (where the second city of the country, Kumasi, is located). The impact was not painless: the Accra suburb, Agbogbloshie, a huge dump of technological products in the open, is one of the most polluted places in the world.

  • According to AbbreviationFinder.org, Accra is the capital city of Ghana. See acronyms and abbreviations related to this capital and other major cities within this country.

About 68.8% of the population is Christian, 15.8% Muslim (especially in the northern regions), while 8.5% practice traditional cults (especially in rural areas). The remaining 6.8% belongs to other religious groups. The influence of evangelical fundamentalism is increasing.

The government has been the protagonist of major efforts to fight poverty and to achieve the ‘Millennium Goals’ set by the United Nations for 2015, especially in relation to universal primary schooling. Education is 87.1%. Ghana, like many countries in the region, hosts refugees and immigrants from neighboring countries, also due to relatively favorable economic conditions.

Economy

Inflation rate 12.40%
Unemployment rate 11.9%
Gross domestic product (GDP) $ 134,000,000,000
GDP growth rate 8.40%
GDP per capita 4,700 USD
GDP by sector
Agriculture 18.30%
Industry 24.50%
Service 57.20%
State budget
Revenue 3.457 billion
Expenditure 4.323 billion
Proportion of the population below the national poverty line 28.5%
Distribution of household income
Top 10% 32.8
Lower 10% 2
Industrial production growth rate -0.50%
Investment volume 36.8% of GDP
National debt 71.80% of GDP
Foreign exchange reserves $ 7,345,000,000
Tourism 2014
Visitors 1,093,000
Revenue $ 1,027,000,000

There are considerable mineral resources, largely concentrated in the southwestern Precambrian crystalline base. The extraction of gold, together with the slave trade, was the reason that pushed the Europeans to that coast which took its name from gold; Ghana is the second African producer after the SouthAfrican Republic. Noteworthy are the manganese deposits, exploited in the hinterland of Takoradi, and even more those of bauxite, present mainly in a large area west and south-west of Kumasi.

The lack of fuel has induced Ghana to focus on its own water wealth to solve the problem of energy sources: this is how the Volta Project was born, a grandiose program for the use of the waters of the Volta River, and at the same time an economic development plan and territorial reorganization. In 1962, work began on the construction of the large dam, as well as the Akosombo power plant, a vast electricity distribution network, the port and the aluminum factory of Tema and various works concerning other sectors (irrigation, inland fishing, transport, tourism). With the Volta plant, Ghana has an installed power of almost 1.2 million kW, capable of producing energy much higher than the current demand, almost entirely of water origin. Manufacturing industries are largely concentrated in the Accra-Tema and Sekondi-Takoradi conurbations: in particular, Tema hosts an oil refinery, an aluminum factory, a steel mill, a cement plant and various textile factories; chemical-pharmaceutical industries have sprung up in Accra; in Sekondi-Takoradi there are cement factories and other factories; and food factories are scattered across the country.

Among the West African states, Ghana is one of the best equipped in terms of communication routes. The railways extend for almost 1000 km and form an organic network in the south of the country, connecting the major urban centers and following the main economic guidelines. Roads and tracks, also much more numerous in the south than in the north, stretch for over 50,000 km. The merchant navy is modest in size; the main ports are the traditional one of Takoradi, built in colonial times and mainly intended for export traffic, and that of Tema, organized as an industrial port. The Ghana has several airports, including those of Accra (international), Takoradi, Kumasi. The number of tourists for now is not very high, but it has shown a significant increase (429,000 admissions in 2005).