Abstract
The study addresses population dynamics in Ghana on the urban and regional levels between 1984 and 2000. At the urban level, the development trends are analyzed for urban localities (population above 5,000) on the basis of geo-coded census data. Potential driving forces for rapid population growth related to size, location, accessibility and facility counts are examined using bivariate and multivariate analysis. An index of weighted accessibility relative to other urban localities provides significant explanation at the national level, as does initial locality size. At the regional level, population development is analyzed to provide insight into the rural–urban relations. The level of urbanization is steadily increasing but varies considerably between regions. Areas of high population growth are found in some rural areas that have a remote location relative to the large urban centers. This seems to indicate the existence of ‘frontier’ regions, i.e. areas that experience a high degree of in-migration by people aiming to undertake specific farming activities. A high proportion of the population growth in these areas appears to take place in relatively small towns. The paper concludes with a more in-depth discussion of the development characteristics of Ghana’s Western Region. This region has experienced one of the highest regional population growth rates, mainly due to its status as a ‘frontier’ for cocoa production.
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Notes
The non-farm sector/activities are defined in accordance with the definition provided by Satterthwaite and Tacoli (2003), as: ‘…all activities outside the agricultural sector. This excludes wage or exchange labour on other farms (sometimes classed as ‘off-farm’) but includes services and manufacturing related to the transformation and processing of agricultural produce, as well as non-related services and manufacturing activities’ (Ibid., p. 20). It includes all forms of work taking place in a variety of locations.
An indigenous household is here defined as a household that is a member of any of the resident local Sefwi matrilineages and thereby has the right to access to land for farming (Awanyo 1998). A migrant household is correspondingly defined as a household that does not belong to a local matrilineage and thereby does not have an inherited right to access to land.
Despite the proximity of Bonsu Nkwanta and Bodi to the Ivory Coast, none of the randomly selected households included in the research were of Ivorian nationality. The main reason for this is that the study is based on settlers in the two settlements. The majority of Ivorians entering the two settlements are seasonal labour migrants or people engaged in trading during the peak of the cocoa season. However, they do not settle permanently here and are thereby not included in the research, nor are they included in the population data from GSS outlined in Table 10.
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Moller-Jensen, L., Knudsen, M.H. Patterns of population change in Ghana (1984–2000): urbanization and frontier development. GeoJournal 73, 307–320 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-008-9209-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-008-9209-x