For example, it has been found among the Ashantis that the need to return home becomes increasingly important as they age because the men and women become eligible for leadership roles as lineage elders and household heads [ 11 , 25 ]. The Ashantis predominate in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, and live in the heart of the cocoa growing zone in central Ghana. Table 4 highlights gender disparities with respect to selected socioeconomic variables concerning the phenomenon of population ageing in Ghana between and The table reveals that an overwhelming majority of older men and women reside in rural Ghana.
More elderly women than men are likely to be found in both villages and towns as the sex ratios, suggesting a deficit of males, especially in Most of the elderly men and women have not had any formal education, although there is a slight improvement between and , particularly with respect to older men.
The evidence further indicates that about four out of every five older men or women are engaged in agricultural activities. In all, while there are 98 males for every females in the entire population [ 12 , 14 ], there are only 87 older men for every older women for the elderly population, as shown in the last column of Table 4.
The disparities with respect to these characteristics may be due to the fact that women, on average, live longer than men in most populations [ 1 — 3 , 9 , 18 ] and typically marry men older than themselves, and men are more likely than women to remarry after divorce or the death of a spouse [ 26 ]. Additionally, since many young adults, especially males, are more likely to migrate to cities in search of work and schools, some of them may choose to remain in the cities where social amenities and other benefits of modernization are concentrated after retirement, while others return to their villages to subsist on agriculture due to inadequate or lack of financial base to cope with the demands of city life [ 4 , 5 , 7 ].
It should be noted that social attachments of the migrants with their childhood areas may also induce some of them to return to the rural areas after retirement.
Although the percentage of the elderly persons has risen significantly in rural Ghana, there is no evidence to suggest a corresponding social care for the aged.
As a result, many older people, who cannot engage in large-scale agricultural activities, are faced with inadequate and insecure income in the absence of extended family support. The table suggests that while children under 15 years will constitute about Then by , it is expected that the proportion of children under 15 years will further reduce to In absolute numbers, persons aged 60 years and over will increase from 1. The results of indicators of population ageing are presented in Table 6.
It is projected that the overall dependency ratio will decline to From the preceding discussion, several critical issues relating to population aging research in Ghana have emerged. Research which will inform policy and planning for an aging population is a priority area in the country. The preceding analysis has shown that the elderly will be concentrated more in the young age groups, that is, 60—69 age range.
It is conceded that the foregoing population projection hypotheses may be imprecise because population projections are as good as the assumptions underlying them so that different assumptions will result in different population figures. Given the unpredictability of both human and reproductive behaviour, these estimates should be accepted with caution. However, the results are suggestive of what might happen in future. In particular, the population projections are needful in order to provide a veritable platform for raising awareness on aging as a policy and research issue in Ghana.
The results of the study have shown the preponderance of older women relative to their male counterparts. Beside taking care of their grandchildren, meals, housework, and taking part in community affairs, elderly women in Ghana engage in much agricultural work that includes planting, weeding, watering, harvesting, processing, and storage of the food their families eat.
In fact, it has been found that in most activities in the rural areas, the roles of older wives are not statistically different from their younger counterparts [ 28 ]. Elderly women farmers often make long and tedious journeys to market, sometimes with grandchildren on their backs and carrying heavy headloads of farm produce to sell. Additionally, in many rural areas, the aged women are the heads of the households mainly because of the death of their husbands.
Despite the fact that they do much agricultural work, the rural elderly women are yet to benefit from agricultural support programmes such as extension and credit. In fact, according to the World Bank [ 29 ], women in Ghana constitute 47 percent of total labour force in agriculture, and they account for as much as 70 percent of the total food production.
The ageing process exposes individuals to increasing risk of illness and disability. As Ghana is a poor country, lifetime exposure to health problems means that many Ghanaians may enter old age already in chronic ill-health. Personal health consistently ranks alongside material security as a priority concern for the aged. Indeed, physical health is for many rural elderly persons their single most important asset, bound up with their ability to work in the farms, to function independently, and to maintain a reasonable standard of living.
Due to pervasive poverty, it is hypothesized that there is an inverse relationship between modernization and family support for the elderly, resulting in a growing incidence of low levels of well-being among the elderly persons. Yet, very little is known in Ghana and other parts of Africa about intergenerational transfers.
In the traditional African society, children are expected to support their parents in old age because there is no universal social security system. Unfortunately, Ghana and many countries in Africa have accorded relatively low priority in their national policies to the ageing of their populations. As a result of lack of full knowledge of the implications of the changes taking place in the traditional family, it is still assumed in most of these settings that the family will continue to provide the context within which the needs of the older population could be met.
Also, subregional networks that could facilitate exchange of information, resource sharing, training opportunities, and, more importantly, effective dissemination of research findings are increasingly needful.
Such networks may be developed by the relevant international agencies in conjunction with appropriate persons at the national level to ensure optimal cooperation and success of research endeavors.
The pace of population ageing is faster in developing countries than in developed countries. Consequently, developing countries will have less time to adjust to the consequences of population ageing.
Moreover, population ageing in developing countries is taking place at lower levels of socioeconomic development than has been the case for developed countries. Furthermore, population ageing is profound, having major consequences and implications for all facets of human life. In the economic area, population ageing will have an impact on economic growth, savings, investment, consumption, labour markets, pensions, taxation, and intergenerational transfers. In the social sphere, population ageing influences family composition and living arrangements, housing demand, migration trends, epidemiology, and the need for healthcare services.
In the political arena, population ageing may shape voting patterns and political representation. The foregoing presentation points to the fact that ageing should be one of the most important issues that need to be addressed in the country.
In the developed countries, the demographic transition process leading to an ageing population has taken place over the span of more than a century [ 30 — 32 ]. This furnished plenty of warning and preparation time for increased numbers of elderly people.
In Ghana in particular and Africa in general, this process of transition has occurred in a few decades. It should be noted that even countries with a high level of economic and social development would find it difficult adjusting to a rapidly ageing population in such a short time period. Then for countries still struggling with the problems of underdevelopment, where unfortunately most of these African countries are currently located, the challenges will be undeniably formidable.
Because of these foregoing reasons, it is important that our developing country governments are sufficiently sensitized. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article of the Year Award: Outstanding research contributions of , as selected by our Chief Editors. Read the winning articles. Journal overview. Special Issues. Academic Editor: J. Received 08 Feb Accepted 22 Jul Published 29 Sep Abstract This paper attempts to highlight research gaps and what should be done concerning population ageing in the Ghanaian context. Introduction The population aged 60 years or over tripled from its number in to million in , and by , the number of older persons had surpassed million, while current projections suggest that by , 2 billion older persons will be alive, implying that their number will once again triple over a span of 50 years [ 1 ].
Methodology The study utilizes the — census results of Ghana, and the United Nations [ 18 ] medium variant projection assumptions. Results 3. Table 1. The percentages refer to proportions of the aged population to the total country population. Table 2. Includes the present Upper East and Upper West regions. Includes the present Upper East region. Table 3. Table 4. Percentage distribution of elderly persons aged 60 and above in Ghana by selected characteristics, — Table 5.
Measure Year Median The median is expressed in years while the ratios are expressed in percent. Table 6. The total fertility rate and life expectancy are measured in number of children per woman and years, respectively, while net migration is constant at zero.
Table 7. Sahoo et al. View at: Google Scholar C. View at: Google Scholar W. Serow and M. View at: Google Scholar U. Freedman, Ed. Ghana Demographic and Health Survey Ghana Health Service, View at: Google Scholar J. She described the escalating levels of environmental pollution and mental health problems as the worsening threats to an already dismal situation in the country battling with hypertension, diabetes, heart diseases and other life-threatening diseases.
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