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A Note on a Demographic Sample Survey for the Study of Factors Affecting Fertility in Ghana1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

D. I. Pool
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Extract

Today, Ghana's rate of natural increase must be approaching the very high level of 3 per cent, per annum. Such a rapid rate of growth results from the maintenance of a high birth-rate in a period when the crude death-rate has been declining radically. Everyone wishes to see further improvements in life-expectation, but the continuation of such high rates of population growth will almost certainly prejudice or inhibit the implementation of satisfactory levels of economic growth. One immediate result could be an increase in unemployment, particularly among school-leavers, while the long-term consequences might include widespread declines in the standards of living and nutrition.

Résumé

NOTE SUR UNE ENQUÊTE DÉMOGRAPHIQUE POUR UNE ÉTUDE DES FACTEURS RELATIFS A LA FERTILITÉ AU GHANA

Avec une mortalité en baisse, le maintien d'un haut niveau de fertilité au Ghana a entraîné un taux élévé de l'accroissement de la population qui s'oppose à l'implantation du développement économique.

Les études sur le terrain ont démontré que de nombreux facteurs avaient entraêné ce niveau de fertilité, mais il est nécessaire de déterminer précisément les procédés d'interprétation dans leurs rapports et leur conception, et les changements qui peuvent intervenir à la suite de l'urbanisation et des changements sociaux.

En 1965–6, en vue de combler cette lacune, l'auteur a questionné 38 informateurs pour obtenir des réponses de deux échantillons de femmes prises au hasard. Les questionnaires couvraient les champs suivants: mariage, grossesse, migrations, et comprenaient des questions ayant trait à: 10) les caractéristiques individuelles. 20) le statut socio-économique. 30) le degré d'acculturation. 40) la connaissance des méthodes de contraception et les attitudes à leur égard. 50) la connaissance des changements intervenus dans Fesperance de vie.

L'un des échantillons était composé de 2700 femmes de la ville d'Accra, l'autre de 3000 femmes d'origine rurale réparties dans 21 villages de chaque région du Ghana. En outre, un échantillon de 314 hommes d'Accra a été questionné sur les rubriques 1 à 5 du questionnaire féminin.

Cet article présente une étude critique de ces questionnaires et des caractéristiques des échantillons (par résidence et par ethnies).

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , July 1967 , pp. 327 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1967

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References

page 327 note 1 The need for such studies has been recognized as a major objective in African demography. See pp. 17–18 and 29 ‘Union Internationale pour l'Étude Scientifique de la Population’, Problems in African Demography: A Colloquium, Paris, 20–27th Aug. 1959, Paris, 1960. See also the analysis of the relationships between family formation and social change in Gutkind, Peter C. W., ‘African Urban Family life’, Cahiers d'Études Africaines, vol. iii, no. 2, 1962, pp. 149–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 328 note 1 For Ghanaian urban élites see Caldwell, J. C, ‘Family Formation and Limitation in Ghana: A Study of Residents of Economically Superior Areas’, in Berelson, Bernard, et al. (eds.), Family Planning and Population Programs: a Review of World Developments, Chicago, 1966.Google Scholar

page 328 note 2 e.g. in Taiwan, Thailand, Pakistan, Turkey, India. Moreover, the U.N. Demographic Centre in Chile has recently undertaken a very comprehensive survey of certain Latin American capital cities.

page 328 note 3 Interviewers spoke all main Ghanaian languages. They were comprised as follows: 29 male students of the age-range 18–30, mainly single and between 22 and 27 years; 7 single female students aged 20–25 years; one married female secretary of 23 years; and one single female secretary of 35.

page 328 note 4 See Pool, D. I., ‘Survey of Fertility in Ghana: Aims, Methods and Progress’, First African Population Conference, Ibadan, January 1966. (In the press.)Google Scholar

page 330 note 1 All settlements of less than 5,000 persons were classified as rural in the census.

page 330 note 2 Grateful acknowledgement is made to Dr. G. Parnicky, U. N. Sampling Expert, and Mr. E. N. Omaboe, then Government Statistician, now Chairman of the Economic Council, for giving me permission to use this frame.

page 330 note 3 This selection maintained all elements of stratification characterizing the original frame.

page 331 note 1 A rural administration area.

page 332 note 1 These people were Gurensi, but termed themselves Frafra. The term Frafra is used administratively to cover people from the Gurensi, Tallensi and other related groups (the 1960 census, however, differentiates between Frafra and Tallensi) and is used colloquially, particularly in the south, in the same sense, Cf. pp. 1–2 and 11, Manoukian, Madeline, ‘Tribes of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast’, Ethnographic Survey of Africa: Western Africa, Part V, London, 1952.Google Scholar

page 333 note 1 Manoukian, op. cit., p. 1:‘There appears to be a high degree of cultural uniformity among the people of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, … there are in general no sharp linguistic or other cultural boundaries between the so-called tribes….’