Data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) indicates that a total of 8,986,059 individuals in the country live in multidimensionally poor households.

Multidimensional poverty, according to the World Bank, is a measure of poverty that captures deprivations in education and access to basic infrastructure in addition to income or consumption at the $2.15 international poverty line.

Ashanti Region topped the chart as the region with the highest number of people living in multidimensionally poor households, with a total of 1,248,482 people. The Northern region came second with a total of 1,123,529 people.

Meanwhile, the Nkwanta-North district was ranked as the district with the highest poverty rate.

The figures show that this district has a poverty rate of 79.7%, which is more than twice the national average of 29.9%.

Only North East Gonja in Savannah (77.7%) and Sekyere Afram Plains in Ashanti (75.3%) have more than three-quarters of their households living in poverty, joining Nkwanta North.

These data are highlights from the Multidimensional Poverty District League Table released by the GSS in commemoration of this year’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, under the theme “Dignity for All in Practice.”

Three of the top 10 districts with the greatest rates of persons living in multidimensionally poor households are in the Northern Region, with two districts each in the North East and Oti areas.

Nanumba North (114,226) and Gusheigu (103,852) municipalities, in the Northern Region are the only districts with over 100,000 personspeople living in multidimensionally poor households.

Four out of the 10 districts with the largest population living in poverty are in the Northern Region, two are in Oti, with Savannah, North East, Western and Volta having one each.

New Juaben South Municipal in the Eastern Region has the lowest poverty rate in the country (4.8%) and is one of the 21 districts with a multidimensional poverty rate of less than 10%. Six out of the 10 districts with the lowest poverty rates are in Greater Accra.

Source: The Independent Ghana