Ewe is spoken by 14 percent of Ghana’s population according to the census
It is quite a common sight to see Ghanaians of Ewe descent in virtually every sector in the working world as well as habitation across the regions in the country.
A few weeks ago, there was an attempted marginalisation of persons who belong to ewe speaking groups by a publication of educational materials on the blindside of the Ghana Education Service.
The act which has since been condemned and the materials withdrawn from the public increased stereotypes and myths surrounding Ghanaians belonging to the ethnic group.
Recent data from worldpopulationreview.com has revealed that the Ewes make up the third largest ethnic group in Ghana. It also emerged that the Ewe language is only second to the Akan family of languages (Twi and Fante) as the most widely spoken in the country.
“Most people in Ghana are citizens of Ashanti territories or Ashantiland: 4.7 million in Ashanti, 2.3 million in Brong-Ahafo, 2.2 million living in Central, 2.6 million in Eastern, 2.3 million living in Western, and 4 million in Greater Accra.
Major ethnic groups in Ghana include: Akan (47.5%), Dagbani (17%), Ewe (14%), Ga-Adangbe (7%), Gurma (6%), Guan (4%), Gurunsi (2.5%), and Bissa (1%).
Common languages in Ghana include: Asante 16%, Ewe 14%, Fante 11.6%, Boron (Brong) 4.9%, Dagomba 4.4%, Dangme 4.2%, Dagarte (Dagaba) 3.9%, Kokomba 3.5%, Akyem 3.2%, Ga 3.1%, and other at 31.2%. The English language does function as an official language here as well,” part of the report on Ghana indicated.
A breakdown report captured by TheFinderonline further indicated that out of the 50 languages captured in the data set. Akan, with its various dialects, is spoken by about 9.1 million people in the country whereas the Ewe language, on the other hand, is spoken by about 3.82 million people in the country.
The Ga language spoken by persons in the country’s capital, Accra covers just about some 745,000 people per the data report.
The data also shows that the top 10 most widely spoken languages include Abron, Dagbani, Dangme, Dagaar, Konkomba, Ga, Farefare, Kusaal, Mampruli and Gonja.
The Abron language is spoken by 1.17 million people, followed by Dagbani, which is spoken by 1.16 million people. Following these are the Dangme and Dagaar, which are spoken by 1.02 million and 924,000 people respectively.
The Konkomba language is spoken by 831,000 people whereas the Farefare language is spoken by about 638,000 people.
The Kusaal, Mampruli and Gonja languages make up the rest of the top 10 languages.