According to the Ghana Statistical Service, 79,733 girls aged 12 to 17 in Ghana have been married or are living with a man.
This was recorded in the Population and Housing Census of 2021.
North East with 13 percent, Savannah with 10.9 percent, and Northern with 10.6 percent have the highest percentage of girls ever in the union, all of which are more than twice the national average of 4 percent.
Despite free and compulsory universal basic education, nearly a quarter of a million girls aged 6 to 14 have never attended school at all, according to the service.
GSS said three out of every 10 of these girls are in the Northern Region.
Per the data, the region 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 percent, which equates to 285,271 girls aged 6 to 14 not attending school.
Three out of every four girls aged 6 to 14 years who are not enrolled in school live in rural areas.
Aside from these figures, 99,150 girls under the age of 15 are involved in economic activity, with half of them not attending school.
“Half (49.9%) of girls engaged in economic activity are in the Northern (22,647), Oti (17,694), and North East (9,153) regions which have the highest share of girls in economic activity,” the data said.
This information was made public to commemorate International Day of the Girl.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
