A report from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), shows that 79,733 girls in Ghana between the ages of 12 to 17 are married or living together with a man.
Out of this number, 25,999 are girls of Junior High School-going age [12 to 14 years].
The data which was culled from the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) and published on the International Day of the Girl, declared the Northern Region as the region with the highest rate of 10.6%.
“Nationally, 79,733 girls in Ghana aged 12 to 171 have been in union i.e. married2 or living together with a man according to the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC). Out of this number, 25,999 are girls of Junior High School going age (12 to 14 years). The regions with the highest percentage of girls ever in union are North East (13.0%), Savannah (10.9%) and Northern (10.6%) all with rates more than twice the national average (4.0%)” said the report.
GSS in a statement also disclosed that despite free and compulsory universal basic education, almost a quarter of a million girls (244,731) aged 6 to 14 years have never attended school at all.
A further breakdown of the statistics reads: “Three out of every 10 of these girls are in the Northern Region which has the highest number of girls who have never attended school (73,516) followed by the Savannah (27,930) and North East (22,857) regions. These three regions also have the highest percent of girls currently not attending school (never attended or attended in the past) with Savannah leading all regions with 40.2% followed by the North East Region (29.3%) and the Northern Region (28.5%).
“The national figure is 7.8% which represents 285,271 girls aged 6 to 14 years that are not attending school. Three out of every four girls (75.8%) aged 6 to 14 years not attending school are living in rural areas.”
The report added that over 99,000 girls under 15-years are engaged in economic activity with half of them out of school.
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