Ghana’s population increased from 18.9 million in 2000 to 33.7 million in 2025, with approximately 12 million people, representing nearly one-third of the population, aged between 15 and 35. This marks the largest youth population in the country’s history.
However, unemployment remains a major challenge for young people, according to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in its newly released flagship publication, Ghana in Numbers 2025. The report indicated that unemployment averaged 32.4 per cent among people aged 15 to 24 and 21.9 per cent among those aged 15 to 35 during the first three quarters of 2025, compared with the national average of 12.8 per cent.
“This means that young jobseekers were more likely than the wider labour force to be unable to find work,” the 178-page report, launched in Accra last Thursday, stated.
The publication further highlighted several socioeconomic challenges facing the country, noting that more than seven in every 10 jobs are in the informal sector, while only 7.7 per cent of Ghana’s 2,644,363 businesses operate formally. It also revealed that nearly two million young people are neither employed nor engaged in education or training, while approximately 13 million people experienced food insecurity in 2025.
According to the report, the average proportion of young people aged 15 to 35 who were not in employment, education or training, commonly referred to as the NEET rate, stood at 17.9 per cent during the first three quarters of 2025.
In the third quarter alone, nearly two million people within this age bracket fell into the category. Women accounted for more than 60 per cent of the group, with the NEET rate recorded at 20.6 per cent in urban communities, 18.0 per cent in rural areas and 25.3 per cent in the Central Region.
Ghana in Numbers 2025 brings together key official statistics on population, social development, the economy, governance, the environment and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a single publication for the first time. The report, presented in accessible language, acknowledges the country’s progress but cautions that the gains have not been distributed equally.
The launch attracted government officials, policymakers, representatives of public institutions, academics, development partners, businesses, civil society organisations, young people and media practitioners.
Job quality and skills alignment
On employment quality and skills development, the report revealed that approximately 65 per cent of employed young people considered their skills relevant to their current jobs. However, only 58 per cent said their educational qualifications matched the requirements of their respective positions.
“More than 70 per cent of all jobs were informal.
This means that the youth employment question is not only whether a person works, but also whether the work uses the person’s training and provides stable, protected employment,” the report revealed. Speaking at the launch, the Government Statistician, Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, said the labour figures should be read together: “Close to two million young people are neither working nor in education or training, what we refer to as the NEET group, and more than six in 10 of them are young women.”
Demographic opportunity time-bound
The Government Statistician said the report showed the share of children aged zero to 14 fell from 41.8 per cent of the population in 2000 to 35.0 per cent in 2025, while the youth share remained at about 35 per cent. The GSS said Ghana’s age structure having many people aged 15 to 35 with children aged zero to 14 falling can support faster development when a larger working-age population has the health, skills and jobs to be productive. The report pointed out that the country’s demographic window opened in the early 2000s and has been narrowing since 2019. “Ghana’s youth window is open, but it is closing,” Dr Iddrisu said, stressing that “Our choices on schooling, skills and jobs in the next 10 years will decide whether it becomes a dividend or a burden.”
Per capita income
The document also reveals that nominal gross domestic product (GDP), which represents the total market value of final goods and services produced within the economy, stands at GH¢1.43 trillion, or GH¢42,502 per person, compared with GH¢4,710 per person in 2013. While inflation fell from 54.1 per cent in December 2022 to 5.4 per cent in December 2025 — now 5.2 per cent — multidimensional poverty fell from 31.2 per cent in 2022 to 23.0 per cent across the first three quarters of 2025. Life expectancy rose from 40.3 years in 1960 to 65.1 years in 2021.
Further details
The report revealed that Ghana recorded a merchandise trade surplus of GH¢148.3 billion in 2025, with exports valued at GH¢401.5 billion, compared with imports of GH¢253.2 billion.
Gold bullion dominated the country’s exports, accounting for 62.9 per cent, followed by raw cocoa beans at 8.6 per cent and crude petroleum at 8.3 per cent. On the import side, gas oil and motor spirit were the leading commodities, representing 11.2 per cent and 9.2 per cent, respectively.
Asia emerged as Ghana’s largest export destination, absorbing 50.1 per cent of total exports, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) alone purchasing goods worth GH¢104.0 billion.
However, the country’s first-ever survey of informal cross-border trade revealed that goods valued at GH¢38.4 billion crossed Ghana’s land borders with Togo, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire in the 12 months to September 2025. This was 1.4 times the value of formal trade with the three neighbouring countries, accounting for approximately six out of every 10 cedis exchanged through trade with them.
The first Integrated Business Establishment Survey also identified 2,644,363 businesses operating in Ghana in 2024, including, for the first time, enterprises without permanent physical structures.
The number of business establishments increased from 638,235 in 2014 to 1.87 million in 2024, representing nearly a threefold rise. However, employment within these establishments only doubled over the same period, increasing from 3.38 million to 6.90 million people.
The report further indicated that micro-enterprises employing between one and five people account for nine out of every 10 establishments. Women operate 84.0 per cent of businesses located in open spaces, while 2,087 children aged between 10 and 14 are engaged in mobile trading.
Greater Accra recorded the highest proportion of formal businesses at 12.8 per cent, while the North East Region had the lowest, at 1.8 per cent.
The publication also highlighted a declining interest among young people in agriculture. The number of Ghanaians aged 15 to 24 engaged in the sector dropped from 866,000 in 2010 to 381,000 in 2021. Similarly, agricultural employment among those aged 15 to 35 declined from 2.026 million to 1.223 million within the same period.
Speaking at the launch, Dr Iddrisu warned that Ghana must act swiftly to harness the potential of its growing youth population through appropriate investments in education, skills development and employment opportunities.
“Ghana’s youth window is open, but it is closing. Our choices on schooling, skills and jobs in the next 10 years will decide whether it becomes a dividend or a burden,” Dr Iddrisu said.
Population, society
The document said the country added between 0.5 and 0.7 million people every year — the equivalent of a new city annually — although growth continued to slow: from 2.7 per cent a year between 1984 and 2000, to 2.5 per cent between 2000 and 2010, and 2.1 per cent between 2010 and 2021, stretching the doubling time from 25.9 years to 33.3 years.
The country became more urban than rural in 2010. By 2025, 58.7 per cent of Ghanaians lived in towns and cities, with Greater Accra (6.1 million, 18.2 per cent) and Ashanti (5.8 million, 17.0 per cent) together holding more than a third of the population.
Greater Accra’s density rose from 1,236 to 1,681 people per square kilometre between 2010 and 2021.
Families are becoming smaller and living longer.
A woman had about 6.4 children in 1988 and 3.9 in 2022; households averaged 3.6 people in 2021, the smallest on record.
Environment
The environment is under strain. Forest reserve cover has shifted north, with Western North’s share of land under forest falling from 19.6 per cent in 1990 to 6.5 per cent in 2021 and Western from 17.0 to 8.4 per cent, while Savannah rose from 6.5 to 14.9 per cent and Northern from 1.1 to 6.9 per cent.
Coastal plastic debris rose more than fivefold between 2016 and 2019 and, although it eased in 2020, it remained more than four times the 2016 level. Some 30.8 per cent of urban residents live in slums.
Appreciation and requests
Dr Iddrisu thanked the Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, for providing for the annual production of the publication in the 2026 Budget, “turning a single publication into a national institution,” and for the GH¢207 million allocation for the rebasing of GDP and the Consumer Price Index.
He made two requests: sustained domestic financing for statistical work beyond 2026 so that “the numbers a nation budgets with should not rise and fall with external funding cycles”; and support for the passage of the Statistics Bill through Cabinet and Parliament.
In the foreword, Dr Forson said: “Good policy is not built on opinion or guesswork. It is built on evidence”.
