Cohabitees most affected by multidimensional poverty – GSS 

Unmarried cohabiting couples recorded the highest incidence of multidimensional poverty by marital status, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has reported. 

The latest Quarterly Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) showed that 33.1 per cent of cohabiting couples were poor in at least one-third of the four poverty dimensions-living conditions, education, health and employment-in the third quarter of 2025. 

Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, Government Statistician, said at the release of the MPI in Accra on Wednesday that the figure, though a decline from 34.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, remained above the national average of 21.9 per cent. 

The report indicated that multidimensional poverty among married persons declined from 17.9 per cent to 16.1 per cent, while divorced persons recorded the lowest incidence at 15.8 per cent, down marginally from 15.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2025. 

Poverty among separated persons also declined from 17.1 per cent to 16.4 per cent, while widowed persons recorded an increase from 20.7 per cent to 22.5 per cent. Persons who had never married saw an increase from 17.6 per cent to 18.2 per cent. 

Dr Iddrisu said the survey did not examine the reasons cohabiting persons recorded the highest poverty incidence, but encouraged legal unions alongside broader social and economic interventions. 

He cautioned against interpreting the lower poverty incidence among divorced persons as justification for leaving marriages. 

“Households headed by divorced persons recorded very low poverty incidence rates, but that is not to say those are joined together formally should divorce because the formal arrangement is better no matter how you look at it,” he said. 

Dr Iddrisu noted that the findings suggested higher economic stress, lower stability and greater vulnerability among cohabiting households, which often lacked access to support systems, inheritance rights and social recognition, making them more exposed to shocks such as illness, unemployment and housing insecurity. 

“Formal unions appear to provide households with greater stability, which translates into lower poverty incidence. But informal households are clearly more vulnerable, and this must be addressed in policy design,” he said. 

“For example, when you have people married, particularly when they’re employed, then they put their resources together to do better things. If they have children, they’re able to look after them well. All these interventions impact positively on married individuals,” he added. 

He encouraged legal marriages alongside the implementation of inclusive legal and social protection policies targeted at households in informal unions to ensure no one was left behind in Ghana’s poverty reduction agenda. 

Source: GNA 

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