Differentials in the proximate determinants of fertility in Ghana

This paper analyses fertility patterns among various subgroups of Ghana’s population since 1998 using data from the last three Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys (GDHS) of 1998, 2003 and 2008. The impacts of sexual activity, contraceptive use, abortion, postpartum infecundability and sterility on fertility in each population subgroup are quantified using the model of the proximate determinants of fertility reformulated by John Stover. The Northern regions had the highest percentage reduction due to the index of postpartum infecundability (Ci). The Greater Accra and Ashanti regions had the highest percentage reduction in fertility due to abortion. The inhibition effect of abortion is relatively high in the Greater Accra and the Ashanti regions; it is probably due to their higher rates of urbanization and associated abandonment of cultural practices that are frown upon in the rural areas. Different policy approaches are needed to manage fertility decline among the different subgroups of the population