(a)

Characteristics of Ghana's population structure

1. The age structure of the population has:

- 4% of people who are 65 years and above classifying them as unproductive and dependency group
- 51% of people (youth) from 15 years to 64 years who form the labour force/productive group
- The people below 15 years represent 45% classified as dependency/unproductive group

2. The structure is classified as youthful population as the majority (51%) of the population are youth

3. There is dependency burden representing 49% (45% + 4%)

4. There is low saving capacity of people as a result of the high dependency burden

5. The sex structure represents females more than the males (51% + 49%)

(b)

Socio-economic implications of the current population structure in Ghana

1. High dependency
2. Low savings and investment
3. Unemployment
4. High fertility rate
5. Labour supply
6. Large market base
7. Increase in revenue for government
8. Pressure on social amenities

(a)

Vicious cycle of population growth

Explanation of the vicious cycle of population growth illustrated above

1. The result of a high population growth rate of 3.4% is high dependency burden since majority of the population are young and partly aged who depend mostly on the working population

2. This leads to low savings by individuals to affect investment by government and private people in the country

3. Low investments brings about low economic growth which consequently leads to low standard of living in the country

4. This low standard of living finally leads to high population growth since many poor/people facing financial challenges find it difficult to afford efficient family planning methods and tend to raise large family size and this restarts the vicious cycle with high population growth

(b)

Measures that can be adopted to break the vicious cycle of population growth in Ghana

1. The use of efficient family planning methods
2. Promotion of girls education
3. Public education on the effects of rapid population growth
4. Change in attitudes towards large family size
5. Incentives package for couples with small family size
6. Discouragement of early marriage
7. Enforcement of immigration laws
8. Provision of sex education/family life education in school
9. Provision of employment/executive of poverty alleviation schemes
10. Adherence to the existing population policy