According to the 2021 Population and Housing Census, four out of five (80.8 percent) married people in Ghana have not registered their marriages.
According to census data, the rate of unregistered marriages ranges from 59.9% in the Greater Accra Region to 97.1 percent in the Northern Region for people aged 15 and up.
75.5 percent of marriages in the Ashanti Region are not registered, followed by 76.9%, 79.6%, and 80.4 percent in the Eastern, Central, and Western Regions, respectively.
According to census data, the northern section of the country has the greatest rates of unregistered marriages, with 97.1 percent, 96.1 percent, and 95.7 percent in the Northern, Savannah, and North East areas, respectively.
Furthermore, married people in cities have registered their marriages at a higher rate (27.3%) than those in rural areas (9.3%).
80% Unregistered Marriages in Ghana
Individuals who are not married
More than half of the 7,875,880 people who have never been married are men (4,459,622 or 56.6 percent) who live in metropolitan areas, according to the census.
Separated, divorced, or widowed women outnumber men in both rural and urban areas, according to the data.
According to the census, 3.5 percent of females in urban areas were divorced compared to 1.7 percent of males, while 3.6 percent of females in rural regions were divorced compared to 2.4 percent of males.