Abstract

The population and housing census (PHC) is the unique source of reliable and comprehensive data about the size of population and also on major socio-economic & socio-demographic characteristics of the country. It provides data on geographic and administrative distribution of population and household in addition to the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of all the people in the country. Generally, it provides for comparing and projecting demographic data, social and economic characteristics, as well as household and housing conditions at all levels of the country’s administrative units and dimensions: national, regional, districts and localities. The data from the census is classified, tabulated and disseminated so that researchers, administrators, policy makers and development partners can use the information in formulating and implementing various multi-sectorial development programs at the national and community levels. Data on all key variables namely area, household, population, economic activity, literacy and education, fertility and child survival, housing conditions and sanitation are collected and available in the census data. The 2021 PHC in Ghana had an overarching goal of generating updated demographic, social and economic data, housing characteristics and dwelling conditions to support national development planning activities.

Geographic coverage

National Coverage , Region , District

Analysis unit

• Individuals
• Households
• Emigrants
• Absentee population
• Mortality
• Type of residence (households and non household)

Universe

All persons who spent census night (midnight of 27th June 2021) in Ghana

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

This 10% sample data for the 2021 PHC is representative at the district/subdistrict level and also by the urban rural classification.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Research instrument

GSS developed two categories of instruments for the 2021 PHC: the listing form and the enumeration instruments. The listing form was only one, while the enumeration instruments comprised six questionnaires, designated as PHC 1A, PHC 1B, PHC 1C, PHC 1D, PHC 1E and PHC 1F. The PHC 1A was the most comprehensive with the others being its subsets.

1. Listing Form: The listing form was developed to collect data on type of structures, level of completion, whether occupied or vacant and use(s) of the structures. It was also used to collect information about the availability, number and types of toilet facilities in the structures. It was also used to capture the number of households in a structure, number of persons in households and the sex of the persons residing in the households if occupied. Finally, the listing form was used to capture data on non-household populations such as the population in institutions, floating population and sex of the non-household populations.

2. PHC 1A: The PHC 1A questionnaire was used to collect data from all households in the country. Primarily, it was used to capture household members and visitors who spent the Census Night in the dwelling of the household, and their relationship with the head of the household. It was also used to collect data on homeless households. Members of the households who were absent were enumerated at the place where they had spent the Census Night. The questionnaire was also used to collect the following household information: emigration; socio-demographic characteristics (sex, age, place of birth and enumeration, survival status of parents, literacy and education; economic activities; difficulty in performing activities; ownership and usage of information, technology and communication facilities; fertility; mortality; housing characteristics and conditions and sanitation.

3. PHC 1B: The PHC 1B questionnaire was used to collect data from persons in stable institutions comprising boarding houses, hostels and prisons who were present on Census Night. Other information that was captured with this instrument are socio-demographic characteristics, literacy and education, economic activities, difficulty in performing activities; ownership and usage of information, technology and communication facilities; fertility; mortality; housing characteristics and conditions and sanitation.

4. PHC 1C: The PHC 1C questionnaire was used to collect data from persons in “unstable” institutions such as hospitals and prayer camps who were present at these places on Census Night. The instrument was used to capture only the socio-demographic characteristics of individuals.

5. PHC 1D: The PHC 1D questionnaire was used to collect data from the floating population. This constitutes persons who were found at airports, seaports, lorry stations and similar locations waiting for or embarking on long-distance travel, as well as outdoor sleepers on Census Night. The instrument captured the socio-demographic information of individuals.

6. PHC 1E: All persons who spent the Census Night at hotels, motels and guest houses were enumerated using the PHC 1E. The content of the questionnaire was similar to that of the PHC 1D.

7. PHC 1F: The PHC 1F questionnaire was administered to diplomats in the country.

Cleaning operations

The Census data editing was implemented at three levels: 1. data editing by enumerators and supervisors during data collection 2. data editing was done at the regional level by the regional data quality monitors during data collection 3. Final data editing was done at the national level using the batch edits in CSPro and STATA Data editing and cleaning was mainly digital.

Response rate

100 percent

Data appraisal

A post Enumeration Survey (PES) was conducted to assess the extent of coverage and content error.

Abstract

The AGRIS Ghana Pilot test was implemented in 4 districts of the Ashanti Region (Ahafo Ano South, Asante Akim North, Ejura Sekye Dumase, and Sekyere Afram Plains) in February 2018, to collect information on: - Crop and livestock production as well as data on farm characteristics, diversification and structures; - Farm revenues and expenses; - Type of labour used by the agricultural holding; - Farming practices and their linkages with the natural environment; - Farm machinery, equipment and assets.

The general objective of the pilot was to customize AGRIS instruments and methodologies for adoption as a standard tool to efficiently gather relevant and reliable agricultural data for policy making and monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The specific objectives of the AGRIS Ghana pilot were as follows: - Elaborate the overall set up of AGRIS in Ghana; - Customize the content of the AGRIS questionnaire to the Ghanaian context; - Assess the overall efficiency of the customized, integrated questionnaires and their feasibility in terms of length, flow, use of Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI), and integration of core and rotating modules; - Assess the difficulty and relevance of each question, each section and each generic questionnaire for different types of holdings; - Test the use of Survey Solutions software to implement CAPI data collection, and the current version of the CAPI questionnaires; - Assess the relevance of the training material developed to train survey enumerators and supervisors.

Geographic coverage

District level coverage. The 4 district covered by the survey were:

• Ahafo Ano South (CORE+PME)
• Asante Akim North (CORE+MEA)
• Ejura Sekye Dumase (CORE+LABOUR)
• Sekyere Afram Plains (CORE+ECO)

Analysis unit

Agricultural holdings in the household sector

Universe

All households, agricultural or not, in the 4 surveyed districts.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Definition of agricultural holding

As stated in the manual of the World Programme for the Census of Agriculture (FAO, 2015), an agricultural holding is defined as an economic unit of agricultural production under single management comprising all livestock and poultry kept, and all land used wholly or partly for agricultural production purposes, without regards to title, legal form, or size. Single management may be exercised by an individual or household, jointly by two or more individuals or households, by a clan or tribe, or by a juridical person such as a corporation, cooperative or government agency (FAO, 2015).

1. The Sampling Frame

The initial plan for the pilot survey was to consider as statistical units, agricultural holdings covering both the household and the non-household sectors, as proposed in the AGRIS methodology. For holdings in the household sector, no updated list of agricultural households in the country was available, and therefore a sampling frame needed to be established. To do so, the 2010 Population and Housing Census (PHC) was used to build a frame of EAs which were the primary sampling units (PSUs) of the adopted sampling design. After selecting the sample of PSUs in the four districts of interest, a complete list of holdings in the selected EAs was built. All households, agricultural or not, present in the selected EAs were listed.

Holdings in the non-household sector are by definition, economic units such as commercial farms and government institutions engaged in agricultural production. GSS and MoFA provided a list of these holdings to be used as sampling frame. Therefore, the plan was to use as the overall sampling frame a multiple frame composed of the two lists described above (one for the household sector and one for the non-household sector). However, after further discussion and evaluation, it was determined that the list of holdings in the non-household sector could not be considered as a reliable sampling frame for the targeted units. As a consequence, the data collected for the 80 non-household units could not be analysed to represent holdings in the nonhousehold sector.

1. The Sampling design

A stratified two-stage sampling design was used for the holdings in the household sector. The PSUs were the EAs and the secondary sampling units (SSU) were the agricultural households.

1. The Sampling Size

For holdings in the household sector, the calculation of sample size was performed fixing the minimum degree of precision required for the final estimates of main variables of interest. The variable considered to determine the sample size was the area of the agricultural land owned by the households. This information had been collected during the 2012-2013 Ghana Living Standards Survey 6 (GLSS6). Therefore, data from this survey was used to estimate the coefficient of variation (CV) of the variable of interest in the chosen four districts.
It should be noted that the estimation domain of the GLSS6 was the region. For that survey, a two-stage sampling design was used and the PSUs (EAs) were selected in each region with the probability proportional to size (PPS). The measure of size was given by the number of individuals in each region, provided for the chosen districts for the AGRIS-Ghana pilot survey by the GLSS6. For the estimation of the CV of the households' agricultural land, it was assumed that the EAs sampled in GLSS6 and located in the target districts were selected in these districts with the same method of selection (PPS). Thus, the households included in the sample were supposed to have been selected with a two-stage sampling design.

The formula for the computation of the sampling size can be consulted in the final report of the survey.

The number of households to be surveyed in each PSU is fixed to 10. Therefore, the size of the sample of PSU is the size of the sample of the households divided by 10.

1. Agricultural holding definition

As stated in the manual of the World Programme for the Census of Agriculture (FAO, 2015), an agricultural holding is defined as an economic unit of agricultural production under single management comprising all livestock and poultry kept, and all land used wholly or partly for agricultural production purposes, without regards to title, legal form, or size. Single management may be exercised by an individual or household, jointly by two or more individuals or households, by a clan or tribe, or by a juridical person such as a corporation, cooperative or government agency (FAO, 2015).

Sampling deviation

As mentioned in the sampling procedure section, holdings in the non-household sector were not included in the survey, as per initial plan, due to a problem in the listing frame provided by the Ghana Statistical Service.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Research instrument

The AGRIS Core module integrates with the Production Methods and Environment module (Core+Pme) collected information on household and holding characteristics, agricultural production and practices used for agricultural production by holdings.

A full appraisal of the contents of the questionnaires can be get by downloading the questionnaires in the documentation section.

Cleaning operations

The first level of data quality checks was implemented through Survey Solutions, which allows the programmer to develop a questionnaire containing skips and validation rules to minimize errors and inconsistencies in the collected data.

After data collection, data editing and preparation was performed using STATA.

Response rate

Out of 370 households planned for interview, 366 were interviewed (98.91% response rate).

Sampling error estimates

Details on the estimates of sampling error are provided in the final survey report.

The urban population in Ghana reached roughly 19 million in 2021, around 58 percent of the country's total inhabitants. In the same year, approximately 13.8 million lived in rural areas. From 1990 onwards, Ghana's urbanization steadily gathered strength, eventually surpassing the rural population in 2009.