Data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), 76,439 youngsters between the ages of 5 and 9 worked in the seven days before the census night in 2021 (June 21–June 27).
The data – released to mark the 2023 World Day Against Child Labour under the theme ‘Social justice for all, end child labour!’ – reveals that, nationally, the total number of children aged 5 to 17 years engaged in economic activity were 419,254: of which 153,189 were aged 10 to 14 years; 189,626 aged 15 to 17 years; with the remaining 76,439 being the youngest group (children aged 5 to 9).
Economic activity, as defined by the GSS, is any work done in the seven days before to census night that assisted in the economic production of commodities and services.
Statistics on children’s economic activities also took into account the number of hours each of the three age groups put into the task they did.
According to GSS, children aged 5 to 17 worked an average of 29.2 hours in the seven days prior to census night. In contrast to children aged 15 to 17 who worked an average of 35.2 hours, children aged 10 to 14 who worked an average of 26.5 hours (roughly 5 hours per weekday), and children aged 5 to 9 who worked an average of 19.8 hours (roughly 4 hours per weekday).
It said that 153,773 youngsters in economic activity aged 5 to 17 across the country had never attended school. 37,963 of these were children between the ages of 5 and 9.
During the census, 94,748 children between the ages of 5 and 17 who were involved in economic activity were also enrolled in school.
