INTRODUCTION

Since the 1980s, the pronatalist region of sub-Saharan Africa, has seen a steady decline in fertility, which is the number of live births a woman has. The total fertility rate, or the average number of births to a woman given a particular fertility and mortality schedule, currently stands at 4.4 births per woman, according to the Population Reference Bureau’s 2024 World Population Datasheet. In Ghana, the TFR is slightly lower at 3.9 births per woman.

 

Despite the progress made in reducing fertility, the target of 3 births per woman by 2020 as indicated in the 1994 Revised Population Policy and the modest 3.5 births per woman by 2024 in the most recent revision, the 2017 National Population Policy, have not been attained. The 2021 Ghana Population and Housing Census indicated a population of 30.8 million people with an intercensal growth rate of 2.1 percent. Ghana's population of 41.8 percent of people below age 18 years is quite youthful, and the momentum is likely to increase the population to 52.5 million by 2050. Continued high fertility rates have implications for development in various ways. For instance, the scarce resources available for a growing population will overburden national resources and infrastructure, thus hindering economic and social development. The burden on social amenities, including housing, healthcare, education and employment opportunities has direct implications for achieving the demographic dividend. In addition, urbanization due to rural-urban migration is likely to lead to springing up of informal settlements, along with its concomitant vices.