Ghana - Ghana Living Standard Survey 4 - 1998, With labour force model

v2.0 Edited, anonymous dataset for distribution.

2000-10

The Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS), with its focus on the household as a key social and economic unit, provides valuable insights into living conditions in Ghana. This present report gives a summary of the main findings of the fourth round survey, which was carried out by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) over a 12-month period (April 1998 to March 1999).

A representative nationwide sample of more than 5,998 households, containing over 25,000 persons, was covered in GLSS 4. Detailed information was collected on all aspects of living conditions, including health, education, employment, housing, agricultural activities, the operation of non-farm establishments, remittances, savings, and credit and assets. The special focus of GLSS 4 was on collecting detailed labour force, income and expenditure data in respect of all household members.

The key findings of the survey are as follows:

Education

Information are given on levels of educational attainment of the adult population, current school enrolment, educational expenditure by households, adult literacy rates, and apprenticeship training. About 32 percent of all adults (representing nearly three and a half million people) have never been to school, a quarter went to school but did not obtain any qualifications; about 33 percent have the MSLC/JSS certificate as their highest qualification, while the remaining 10 percent (a million adults) have secondary or higher-level qualifications (Section 2.1).

About 8 in every ten children aged 6-15, and about half of those aged 16-18, are currently attending school or college. Attendance rates for females are lower than those for males, especially in the northern half of the country (Section 2.2). The average annual cost to a household of maintaining a person at school or college was ¢163,500 per year in March 1999 cedis (Section 2.3). The survey results indicate that 50 percent of adults in Ghana are literate in English or a local language. There are substantial differences between the sexes, and between localities, with regard to literacy. A little over 6 out of every 10 men, but fewer than 4 out of every 10 women, are literate. More than two-thirds (66%) of adults in urban areas are literate, but in rural areas only 41 percent are literate (Section 2.4).

Health

The survey collected data on each person's health condition over the previous two weeks; on the fertility, pre-natal care and contraceptive use of women aged 15-49; on the post-natal care of children aged 5 years and under; and on the preventive health care and vaccination of children aged 7 years and under. About 26 percent of the sample reported having suffered from an illness or injury in the previous two weeks, 61 percent of whom had to stop their usual activities due to the indisposition (Section 3.2).

The survey found that 7.0 percent of women were currently pregnant, and a further 13.2 percent had been pregnant in the last 12 months. Only about 15 percent of all women aged 15-49 or their partners reported using contraceptives; about 11 percent use modern methods, and 4 percent use traditional methods, to prevent or delay pregnancy (Section 3.3). The level of breastfeeding in Ghana is very high; about 98 percent of all children under 5 have been breastfed at one time or another. About 7 percent of children below the age of 8 have never been vaccinated against any of the childhood killer diseases.

Employment

As a major focus of the survey, a wide range of estimates of economic activity, employment, unemployment, underemployment and working conditions are given in the report. The survey also has detailed information about time spent on housekeeping activities. About 77 percent of the adult population (aged 15+) is currently economically active. The activity rates for males and females differ, with the rate for women in the age group (15-64) lower than those for men, but in the younger age group (7-14) and the older age group (65+) the rates for females exceed those for males. For each age group the activity rates for males and females are higher in rural areas (apart from rural savannah) than in urban areas (Section 4.2).

The majority of the working population is employed in agricultural activities (55.0%), followed by trading (18.3%) and then manufacturing (11.7%). Whereas 27.4 percent of working females are engaged in trading, only 7.4 percent of males are traders. The highest hourly wage rates are obtained in mining and quarrying, followed by financial services and then trading. For all areas of employment, females earn lower wages than males (Section 4.3). About 8 percent of the currently active population can be classified as unemployed, but there is also a high degree of underemployment, with some people having a job but wanting to do more work (Section 4.4).

In many households, particularly in rural areas, family members (especially women) spend a great deal of their time fetching water and firewood, in addition to the time spent on other household activities such as cooking and cleaning (Section 4.5).

Migration

The report provides data on migration to create some awareness that would generate further discussions and research into the complex field of population relocation. Some 52 percent of all Ghanaians are migrants, having previously lived in a locality different from where they are living at present; a further 16 percent have moved away from their birthplace, but subsequently returned (Section 5.1).

Housing

Detailed information is presented on a variety of housing characteristics: the occupancy status of the household; household size and room density; access to drinking water, toilet facilities, source of lighting and fuel, rubbish disposal, and materials used in house construction. A little over 40 percent (24 percent in urban areas and 60 percent in rural areas) of the households own the houses they live in. About 80 percent of the households in urban areas have access to pipe-borne water, compared with only 19 percent in rural areas. More than three-quarters of urban households have electricity for lighting, compared with only 17 percent of rural households. Most urban households use charcoal for cooking, whereas most households in rural areas use firewood. Only 14 percent of urban households, and 2 percent of rural households, have access to a flush toilet (Section 6.3).

Household agriculture

About 2.7 million households in Ghana own or operate a farm or keep livestock (Section 7.1). More than half of households, which cultivate crops hire labour for their operations. The major crops, in terms of sales, are cocoa, maize, groundnuts/peanuts, and rice (Section 7.2). About 2 and a half million households process crops or fish for sale, with the major responsibility for this activity falling on women.

Non-farm enterprises

Approximately 1.9 million households or 49 percent of all households in Ghana operate a non-farm business with women operating two-thirds of these businesses. About 56 percent of all businesses involve retail trade, and most of the rest cover some kind of manufacturing (for instance food, beverages, textiles or clothing) (Section 8.1).

Total expenditure

Average annual household expenditure (both cash and imputed) relative to March 1999 prices was about ­¢4,244,000. Given an average household size of 4.3, this implies annual per capita expenditure of about ¢987,000 (Section 9.1). With an exchange rate of ¢2,394 to the US dollar prevailing at March 1999, the average annual household expenditure is US$1,773 and the pre-capita expenditure is US$412. Overall, cash expenditure on food represents 45.4 percent of total household expenditure, while the imputed value of own-produced food consumed by households represents a further 10.3 percent (Section 9.2).

Cash expenditure

Relative to March 1999 prices, Ghanaian households spend on average almost ¢3,500,000 a year (at March 1999 prices), or ¢804,000 on per capita basis (Section 9.3). On national terms, just below half of total cash expenditure (46%) went to food and beverages; and alcohol and tobacco, and clothing and footwear, each accounted for about 10 percent of it. The next most important expenditure groups, in terms of amount spent, are recreation and education (7.5%), transport and communications (5.6%), housing and utility (6.4%) and household goods, operations and services (6.0%).

Food consumption

At the time of the survey Ghanaian households (which number about 4.2 million) were spending on average an amount of almost ¢2.4 billion (at March 1999 prices) on food (Section 9.5), with own-grown food consumed amounting to the value of almost ¢435,000 (Section 8.7). The most important food consumption subgroups, in terms of cash expenditure are roots and tubers (22%), fish (16%), cereals and cereal products (15%), vegetables (9%), and meat (5%). Prepared meals account for 11 percent by value of total food consumption.

While the pattern of consumption, in terms of food subgroups, is broadly similar in urban and rural areas, residents in rural areas consume more roots and tubers, and pulses and nuts than their counterparts in urban areas. Expenditure on alcohol and tobacco is also higher in rural areas. In contrast, the consumption of meat and prepared meal are much higher in urban areas than in rural areas, and urban residents spend much more on cereals and cereal products and poultry and poultry products than their rural counterparts (Section 9.5).

Remittances

About 76 percent of all households reported having remitted money or goods in the previous 12 months to persons who were not their household members. The bulk of these remittances to non-household members went to relatives (93%), and in particular to parents or children (50%), brothers or sisters (18%), and other relatives (23%). Such income flows from the household benefited females (64%) more than their male counterparts (36%).

Whilst annual remittances to people overseas total only about ¢6 billion in March 1999 cedis, the value of remittances received from abroad is about ¢339 billion, which represents 40 percent of all remittances received.

Assets

In general, the level of ownership of most assets is much higher in urban areas than it is in rural areas. It is higher in Accra than in other urban areas, and higher in the rural coastal and rural forest than it is in the rural savannah.

Sample survey data [ssd]

Household