2021 PHC: Greater Accra has 2.1 million residential and non-residential structures; the highest in the country

The Greater Accra region recorded the highest number of residential and non-residential structures of 2.1 million in Ghana, representing about 19.3% of all total structures nationwide.

According to provisional estimates from the Ghana Statistical Service’s 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC), however, the number of structures in Greater Accra is greater than the number of structures in six regions (North East, Savannah, Ahafo,, Upper West, Upper East and Oti regions combined.

The ESG defined structures as residential, non-residential and unfinished.

According to the PHC, three regions which are Greater Accra, Ashanti and East combined account for almost half (47.3%) of all the structures listed.

Surprisingly, the Ashanti region had the highest percentage of unfinished structures, surpassing the national level of 20% of unfinished structures. It had 22% unfinished structures.

The Northeast region recorded the highest number of structures completed, with 9 out of 10 structures completed.

Nationally, six in 10 structures (59.6%) were residential, with regional figures ranging from just over half (53.1%) in the Northwest and Bono regions (53.7% ) nearly three quarters (73.5%) in the savannah region.

Greater Accra is the most populous region

Meanwhile, Ghana’s population now stands at 30.8 million, with Greater Accra overtaking Ashanti as the most populous region.

The Greater Acca region is made up of 5,446,236 people compared to 5,432,485 in the Ashanti region.

The Central region is now the fourth most populous region after the split of the former West, Brong Ahafo and North regions which were all more populated than the Central region in 2010. It has 2,859,821 inhabitants.

The Ahafo region is the least populated region replacing the Upper West which had been the least populated in all previous post-independence censuses. The Savannah and Northeast regions are the second and third least populated regions, respectively.

Data quality

PHC 2021 instituted several data quality monitoring mechanisms and leveraged technology to implement interventions to ensure complete and accurate coverage.

These included the use of GIS technology and geospatial resources, such as collecting GPS coordinates of all structures, using the census dashboard for real-time tracking, and continuous validation of data by data quality controllers at different levels of operations.