The total population of La Dade-Kotopon in 2010 was 183,528 with females constituting 52.7 percent and males 47.3 percent. This figure is projected to 250,227 in 2020 with a growth intercensal growth rate of 3.1 percent. The age distribution of the population shows that the highest number of persons fall within the 20-24 age groups which represent 11 percent of the total population. The lowest age-groups 90-94 and 95+ represented 0.1 percent each. The population density is 6,900 people to km square (GSS, 2014).

The Municipality’s population has a youthful structure, with a slight broad base consisting of numerous children and bloated mid-base with high number of the youth and a small number of elderly persons. Adolescent and young adults (15-29 years old) constitute 31.8 percent of the population, a clear indication of the high rate of migration into the Municipality. Figure 1.5 is the population pyramid for the Municipality according to the 2010 PHC.


The rapid growth of the youth population exerts pressure to expand services and employment opportunities. Again, 44.4 percent of the population is aged between 25 and 59 years. This is higher than the regional population aged between 25 and 59 years (42.3 percent). The age dependency ratio for the Municipality is 50.1 percent while the regional figure is 53.4. Figure 1.6 presents population distribution by marital status in the Municipality.


Majority of the population (46 percent) had never married; about 39 percent were married while 5.4 percent were informal/consensus unions. The high proportion of the never married population might include young people of school going age since the data captured people aged 12 years or older. The household structure for the Municipality shows that nuclear households (head, spouse(s) and children) constituted 26.7 percent while 14.3 percent were nuclear extended households (head, spouse, children and head’s relatives). Head only, that is single person households constituted only 6.1 percent of the total number of households in the Municipality.

Migration

Migration may be defined as a spatial movement involving a temporary or permanent change in one’s usual place of residence from one geographical area to the other within a specified period of time. According to the 2010 PHC, 40 percent of the total population were migrants born elsewhere in the Greater Accra Region or other Regions (especially Eastern Region) or outside Ghana. This is due to the extensive economic activities in the area. This increases the pressure on the basic socio-economic infrastructure of the Municipality. The population distribution in accordance with the ten electoral areas has been presented in Figure 1.7 with the highest being Adobetor and the lowest Abafum/Kowe/Abese.

Gender Equality La Dade-Kotopon had a total population of 250,227 in 2020 with females constituting 52.7 percent and males 47.3 percent. Female dominance is reflected in almost all the age-groups. Due to the differing needs of the two genders, there was the need for a critical gender analysis in all the stages of the plan preparation in order that the specific gender needs will be addressed.

These include both conditional needs in which case immediate provision for gender equality is made and strategic needs in which case interventions will be undertaken to change the position of the affected genders (MoGCSP, 2015). In the area of education for instance, girls are usually more than the boys at the lower levels but the situation changes at the higher levels relatively. Again, women’s multiple roles prevent them from contributing effectively in the governance process making them more voiceless than their male counterparts.

Women principally undertake more care work such as taking care of children, the sick and the aged which comes with less or no income at all. Generally, the informal economy is also dominated by women making them more vulnerable because they may not have structured incomes to support their households. Again, in the Municipality, there are more males with disabilities than females. Again, there literacy rate is higher for the females than the males.

The PHC, 2010 records that less females’ own houses. The analysis also shows that teenage pregnancies occur a lot in the Municipality. This may lead to single parents who have become school drops outs. All these perpetuate the poverty cycle for women. The Municipal Chief Executive and the Presiding Member are male with some key staff who are female. Even though there are more females than males in the Municipality, out of the ten elected Assembly members, none is a woman. Again, only one of the government appointees to the General Assembly is a woman.

One can conclude that female representation of the people at the Assembly level is inadequate. It is believed that the interventions proposed would include equal treatments in respect of rights, benefits, obligations and opportunities with the ultimate goal of bridging the gaps between the two genders. These gaps are influenced by stereotypes and mostly against women. The gender dimensions of programmes will be assessed before implementation in order that one gender is not left behind in the development process.

Settlement Systems;

Natural and Built Environment According to the PHC (2010), La Dade-Kotopon Municipality is 100 percent urban. All the ten electoral areas which also form the main towns are urban in nature. All inhabitants have high access to facilities such as electricity, water, health and education. Urbanisation affects the human society in several ways (MLGRD, 2012). This is because urban areas perform certain functions which cannot be accessed in rural areas. Urban growth has generally been accompanied by sprawl in the peripheries, slum formation and makes shift structures as residence and piecemeal development by private developers and informal dwellers. Figure 1.8 presents the slum areas in the Municipality.


The built environment has almost taken over the natural environment in La due to urbanisation. According to the 2010 PHC, there are over 19,000 housing units and 51,000 households in the Municipal area most of which are indigenous settlements with poor layouts and poorly constructed.

 Apart from the well-established and planned settlements such as the Cantonments, Labone and Burma Camp and some emerging environs such as Tse-Addo, the inner-cycle of the Municipality (La Maami) is indigenous and highly traditional with very old buildings. Some of these houses are being converted to modern structures. Figure 1.9 shows the current land use in the Municipality.

The Municipal Assembly is doing its best to regulate developments by insisting on high standards for building construction especially the new areas and ensuring an even distribution of services across the area. Again, LaDMA wants to ensure that planning in the Municipality provides for the activities of the informal economy with development controls.

According to a survey conducted by Peoples’ Dialogue in 2016, there are pockets of slums in the inner city of the Municipality. These Informal settlements vary in size, nature, sophistication as well as deprivation. Kowe Abese community and Labone Estates are made up of a combination of indigenes and migrants with an internal traditional authority unlike Cantonments and Adobetor.