Ghana poverty rate reaches 56.4% despite economic growth

A recent World Bank report indicates that 56.4% of Ghanaians live in poverty, highlighting a significant gap between the country’s headline economic growth and the actual living standards of its population. Dr. Robert Taliercio O’Brien, the World Bank Division Director for Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, noted that spatial disparities are widening and that economic growth has yet to translate into broad-based improvements.

The report suggests a structural imbalance in Ghana’s economy, as growth is currently driven by sectors with limited capacity to absorb the increasing number of young people entering the labor market. Lawyer Martin Kpebu described the rising unemployment rate as “gunpowder waiting to explode,” warning of the social instability that could result from the lack of economic opportunity.

While the Ghana Statistical Service reported a decrease in the multidimensional poverty rate to 21.9% for the third quarter of 2025, critics point out that the World Bank’s income-based metrics provide a different perspective on long-term economic hardship.