A Chief Statistician with the Ghana Statistical Service, David Kombat has revealed that Ghana’s population is now estimated at 29.6 million.

In an interview with Ghanaian Times, Mr Kombat said the country’s population growth rate is at an estimated 2.5 annually, adding that an estimated 38.8 percent of the population is made up of the youth.

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Mr Kombat argued that because of Ghana’s youthful population of 38.8 percent “if they are provided with education, skills training it will help to create an educated workforce that can increase the fortunes of the country.” If that is done, he said: “we will be working toward Demographic dividend”.

The Chief Statistician also added that there is the need to put in place measures to empower women economically. This he argued will be able to help drive economic growth.

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Ghana’s population has grown by more than 23 million people when the population was at less than at six million at Independence in 1957.

Other indicators from the United Nation’s World Population Review Report (2017) estimated that life expectancy for females in Ghana is 64.2 years and that of the male is 62.1 years, with a fertility rate at 3.8 children per woman.