Volume 52 - Article 30 | Pages 971–1022  

Household structure in Ghana: Exploring dynamics over three decades

By Josephine Akua Ackah Baafi, Rebecca Sear, Estelle McLean, Kofi Awusabo-Asare, Anushé Hassan, Fabian Sebastian Achana, Sarah Walters

Abstract

Background: The nuclear convergence hypothesis proposes that development and urbanisation lead to increasing proportions of nuclear families. We explore this hypothesis in Ghana by charting household living arrangements as captured in censuses and surveys.

Objective: To classify household structure in Ghana and track trends to test whether households converge towards nucleation during processes of development and urbanisation.

Methods: We employ two methods of classification – manual and data-driven (latent class analysis) – to create household structures using Ghana’s censuses (1984–2021) and Demographic and Health Surveys (1993–2022). We explore trends over time and compare urban and rural areas to track nuclear convergence while documenting the differences and similarities between data sources and methods of classification.

Results: We find that though the manual and data-driven approaches produce similar results, the latter is vulnerable to possible misclassification. From the manual approach, we identify seven different typologies of household structure in Ghana and find that, on average, a substantial proportion are core nuclear (couple with children only), other extended (non-multigenerational), and single-member households. Overall, we find weak evidence for nuclear convergence. There has not been a significant shift in the average distribution of household types in Ghana, and in urban areas there is a growing proportion of multigenerational extended households, with region-based peculiarities. We also observe that the surveys provide more reliable evidence on trends than the censuses do.

Contribution: There is no strong evidence to support nuclear convergence in Ghana. We make a methodological contribution, highlighting that the use of data-driven methods for household classification needs to be approached with caution.

Author’s Affiliation

• Josephine Akua Ackah Baafi - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom EMAIL
• Rebecca Sear - Brunel University London, United Kingdom EMAIL
• Estelle McLean - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom EMAIL
• Kofi Awusabo-Asare - University of Cape Coast, Ghana EMAIL
• Anushé Hassan - London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom EMAIL
• Fabian Sebastian Achana - Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC), Ghana EMAIL
• Sarah Walters - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Transitions to adulthood in men and women in rural Malawi in the 21st century using sequence analysis: Some evidence of delay
Volume 51 - Article 14

Earning their keep? Fostering, children's education, and work in north-western Tanzania
Volume 41 - Article 10

Supportive families versus support from families: The decision to have a child in the Netherlands
Volume 37 - Article 14

Does grandparental help mediate the relationship between kin presence and fertility?
Volume 34 - Article 17

Counting Souls: Towards an historical demography of Africa
Volume 34 - Article 3

Does the kin orientation of a British woman’s social network influence her entry into motherhood?
Volume 28 - Article 11

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Gender-specific effects of commuting and relocation on a couple's social life
Volume 40 - Article 36    | Keywords: commmuting, gender relations, household, migration, partnership, social ties

The effects of household and community context on mortality among children under five in Sierra Leone: Evidence from the 2013 Demographic and Health Survey
Volume 40 - Article 11    | Keywords: child mortality, community, Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), household, Sierra Leone

Contemporary female migration in Ghana: Analyses of the 2000 and 2010 Censuses
Volume 39 - Article 44    | Keywords: census, demography, female migration, gender, Ghana, internal migration, migration, population, sub-Saharan Africa

Collecting data from migrants in Ghana: Lessons learned using respondent-driven sampling
Volume 38 - Article 36    | Keywords: data collection, data quality, female migration, Ghana, internal migration, migration, sub-Saharan Africa

Does socioeconomic status matter? The fertility transition in a northern Italian village (marriage cohorts 1900‒1940)
Volume 37 - Article 15    | Keywords: fertility, historical demography, household, Italy, socioeconomic status