The 2021 Population And Housing Census (PHC) statistics has shown that 1,215,546 children within the school-going age (4 to 17 years) in Ghana are not attending school.
Approximately one million (942,427) have never been in school out of the number of children not attending school.
It was recorded that 43.2 percent of children in the Savannah Region have never attended school which indicates the highest percentage in the country.
These records are contained in the 2021 PHC confined brief on Childhood Vulnerabilities in the country which shows statistics on children in Ghana exacting the number and distribution of vulnerable children.
Focusing on activities like sight, hearing, physical (walking and climbing stairs), intellectual (remembering and concentrating), self-care and speech, there are about quarter a million of children who have difficulties in performing them.
Also, there are about 5,976 children in Ghana living with no shelter i.e. sleeping outdoors. It has been calculated that about 43.6%, which represents about two out of five of these children without shelter are in Greater Accra Region as the highest share, then followed Ashanti with 15.7% and Eastern Region with 5.4%.
According to statistics, it has been revealed that 51,081 boys and 79,733 girls between the ages of 12 to 17 years are married or living with a partner.
The Northern Region records the highest number of children that have ever been in union with numbers stated to be 26,698 which represents 20.4% of them.
Reports further showed that one out of three of household population of under 18 yeas of age represented by 3,862,259 children are multidimensionally poor.
The Greater Accra Region and the Ashanti Region have the highest number of children that are multidimensionally poor with numbers 550,118 and 539,048 respectively.
The report was released by the Ghana Statistical Services ahead of the celebration of the World Children’s Day which is annually celebrated on the 20th of November 2022.
UNICEF is encouraging a focus on equality and inclusion for every child this year.
