The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has revealed that about 6.4 million Ghanaians are simultaneously food insecure and multi-dimensionally poor.
This represents 20.8 percent of the total population of Ghana.
According to the Service’s 2022 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey, 13.6 million people, 44.1 percent of the population, were found to be multidimensionally poor in the first quarter of 2022.
This situation worsened in the second quarter as the figures saw an increase to record 14.4 million people, that is 46.7 percent.
However, it is observed that even though about 803,000 more people are poor in the second quarter, the extent of poverty reduces across the two quarters.
Regional basis
On a regional basis, more than half of the population in nine regions (Ahafo, Western North, Bono East, Upper East, Upper West, Oti, Northern, Savannah, and North East) are multidimensionally poor, ranging from 53.0 percent to 77.6 percent.
The North East Region emerged as the poorest, with a record of 77.6 percent in both quarters under review, while the country’s capital, the Greater Accra Region has the lowest poverty rate.
Contributors
Among the indicators for multidimensional poverty, health insurance coverage and improved toilet facilities had the highest deprivations.
The 2022 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey disclosed that deprivation in health insurance coverage was the largest contributor to multidimensional poverty in the first two quarters of 2022 (34.4 percent in quarter 2 and 33.6 percent in quarter 1).
In total, about 14 million of the total Ghanaian populace did not have active health insurance coverage.
The Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey is the first nationally representative high-frequency household panel survey in Ghana.
The Survey, conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service, is being conducted to obtain quarterly and annual data on household final consumption expenditure and a wide scope of demographic, economic and welfare variables including statistics on labour, food security, multidimensional poverty and health status for research, policy, and planning.
The maiden publication presents highlights from the first and second quarter food insecurity, multidimensional poverty, and labour statistics reports.
