The Ghanaian Minaret

The Muslim population of Ghana is estimated to be about 6,108,530, according to the 2021 Population and Housing Census Data released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).

This makes up about 19.9 percent of the total population of Ghana, estimated at 30,753,327, per census data.

This article provides a breakdown of how the Muslim population in Ghana has been dispersed across the 16 administrative regions of the country based on the recently released census report.

Highest Muslim Population

According to the census report, the region with the highest Muslim population is the Northern Region, which accounts for 25.1 percent of the entire Muslim population in the country.

There are about 1,532,977 Muslims residing in the northern region, with 49.7 percent of them being males and 50.3 percent being females.

The Muslim population in the region is equivalent to 66.5 percent of the region’s total population.

Next to the northern region is the Ashanti region, which has 866,117 Muslims, of whom 51.6 percent are males and 48.4 percent are females.

The Muslim population of the Ashanti region accounts for 14.2 percent of the entire Muslim population in the country and 16 percent of the region’s population.

The third region with the highest Muslim population is the Greater Accra region, where 11.6 percent of its over 5 million population identify themselves as Muslims.

There are about 631,591 Muslims within the region, made up of 51.4 percent males and 48.6 percent females.

The Greater Accra region contributes to about 10.3 percent of the country’s entire Muslim population.

In fourth place is the Savannah region, which has 418,352 Muslims, making up 64.1 percent of the region’s population of over 600,000 people.

The region’s Muslim population, which is made up of 50.4 percent males and 49.6 percent females, contributes to 6.85 percent of the Ghanaian Muslim population.

Other regions with a high Muslim population are the Upper West (406,731), North East (402,352), Upper East (385,020), and Bono East (289,268).

Lowest Muslim population

The region with the lowest Muslim population is the Volta region, which contributes less than 1.3 percent of the country’s Muslim population.

There are about 77,136 people who identify themselves as Muslims out of a population of 1,654,650, meaning less than five percent of the people in the region are Muslims.

About 52.3 percent of Muslims in the Volta region are male, while the rest are female.

The second region with the lowest Muslim population is the Ahafo region, which has 93,153 Muslims out of a population of 563,643, equivalent to 16.53 percent.

It contributes 1.5 percent to the entire Muslim population in the country.

In third place is the Oti region, which has a total population of 744,483, of which 97,928, representing 13.2 percent, are Muslims.

About 47.7 percent of the Muslim population in the Oti region is female, while the rest is male.

The region also contributes 1.6 percent to the entire Muslim population.

The census report also indicated that the region with the fourth lowest Muslim population is the Western North region, which has a population of 878,855 out of which 105,226, representing 12 percent, are Muslims.

It has a sex composition of 54.5 percent Muslim males and 45.5 percent Muslim females.

Other regions with a low Muslim population are Bono (154,145), Western (193,794), Eastern (194,838), and the Central region, which has a Muslim population of 259,902.

Muslims in urban and rural areas

The report also indicated that there were about 2,562,629 Muslims living in rural areas, forming about 19.2 percent of the 13,345,138 Ghanaians in the rural areas.

Meanwhile, about 3,545,901 Muslims are living in urban areas, representing 20.4 percent of the 17,408,189 people living in urban areas.