- Government and society
- Cultural life
About one-half of the population is Christian, about one-fifth is Muslim, and another one-fifth adheres to the traditional indigenous religions. Indigenous religions, while widespread and deep-rooted, lack a systematic body of doctrines. Though they are based, in general, on belief in the existence of a supreme being, a number of lesser deities associated with various natural phenomena are recognized. Considerable prominence is given to dead ancestors, who are considered to be ever-present, capable of influencing the course of events for the living and capable of serving as intermediaries between the living and the gods.
In the first half of the 20th century, Christianity steadily gained ground at the expense of the indigenous religions, but the trend slowed following independence. Beginning in the late 20th century, the number of adherents of Islam began to increase. Christian influence is most dominant in the southern part of the country, while Islam is strongest in the extreme north and in the larger urban centres, which contain some immigrant populations from Muslim regions of western Africa. Many spiritualist and syncretistic churches claiming some adherence to Christianity combined with traditional African beliefs in magic and divination have appeared and grown in popularity since the 1950s. Other divisions of the Christian church are the Protestant and Roman Catholic denominations.
1The Ghana cedi (GH¢) replaced the cedi (₡) on July 1, 2007, at a rate of 1 GH¢ = ₡10,000.
|Official name||Republic of Ghana|
|Form of government||unitary multiparty republic with one legislative house (Parliament )|
|Head of state and government||President: John Dramani Mahama|
|Monetary unit||Ghana cedi (GH¢)1|
|Population||(2013 est.) 26,887,000|
|Total area (sq mi)||92,098|
|Total area (sq km)||238,533|
|Urban-rural population||Urban: (2011) 51.9%|
Rural: (2011) 48.1%
|Life expectancy at birth||Male: (2012) 62.6 years|
Female: (2012) 67.2 years
|Literacy: percentage of population age 15 and over literate||Male: (2010) 73.2%|
Female: (2010) 61.2%
|GNI per capita (U.S.$)||(2012) 1,550|