SELECTED STATISTICS ON WOMEN’S STATUS

5% of women 20-24 years were married orin union before age 15

21% of women 20-24 years were married orin union before age 18

17% of women 20-24 years have given birthby age 18

28%of women 15-49 years think that ahusband/partner is justified in hittingor beating his wife under certaincircumstances

69%of women 15-49 years makeuse of at least one type of informationmedia at least once a week (newspaper,magazine, television or radio)

Source: DHS 2014

Female genital mutilation (FGM) refers to “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.”1 While the exact number of girls and women worldwide who have undergone FGM remains unknown, at least 200 million girls and women have been cut in 30 countries with representative data on prevalence. FGM is a violation of girls’ and women’s human rights and is condemned by many international treaties and conventions, as well as by national legislation in many countries. Yet, where it is practised FGM is performed in line with tradition and social norms to ensure that girls are socially accepted and marriageable, and to uphold their status and honour and that of the entire family. UNICEF works with government and civil society partners towards the elimination of FGM in countries where it is still practised.

1. World Health Organization, Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation: An interagency statement, WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNIFEM, OHCHR, UNHCR, UNECA, UNESCO, UNDP, UNAIDS, WHO, Geneva, 2008, p. 4.

STATISTICAL PROFILE ON FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION

Data and Analytics SectionDIVISION OF DATA, RESEARCH AND POLICY

National decree/legislation banning FGM passed (amended in 2007)1994

GHANA

© UNICEF/NYHQ2007-0937/Asselin

HOW WIDESPREAD IS THE PRACTICE?

Less than five per cent of girls and women of reproductive age in Ghana have undergone FGM, with those in certain ethnic groups more likely to have experienced the practice

WHEN AND HOW IS FGM PERFORMED?

About two in three adolescent girls who underwent FGM were cut before the age of 10

Notes: The boundaries and the names shown and the designations used on the map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations. Only categories with 25 or more unweighted cases are presented. Due to rounding, some of the data presented may not add up to 100 per cent. Data on the prevalence of FGM among girls and women with ‘other religion,’ the prevalence of FGM among daughters whose mothers think FGM should continue and on age at cutting among daughters are based on 25-49 unweighted cases. Prevalence data for girls aged 0 to 14 reflect their current, but not final, FGM status since some girls who have not been cut may still be at risk of experiencing the practice once they reach the customary age for cutting. Therefore, the data on prevalence for girls under age 15 is actually an underestimation of the true extent of the practice. Since age at cutting varies among settings, the amount of underestimation also varies and this should be kept in mind when interpreting all FGM/C prevalence data for this age group. ‘Health personnel’ includes doctors, nurses, midwives and other health workers; ‘Traditional practitioner’ includes traditional circumcisers, traditional birth attendants, traditional midwives and other types of traditional practitioners.

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 yearswho have undergone FGM, by region

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have undergone FGM, by ethnicity and religion

Percentage distribution of girls aged 15 to 19 years who have undergone FGM, by age at which cutting occurred

Percentage distribution of girls aged 0 to 14 years who have undergone FGM (as reported by their mothers), according to the type of person/

practitioner performing the procedure

Among daughters of cut girls and women, the percentage of girls aged 0 to 14 years who have undergone FGM (as reported by their mothers),

by mothers’ attitudes about whether the practice should continue

Percentage distribution of girls aged 0 to 14 years who have undergone FGM (as reported by their mothers), by type of FGM performed

Percentage of girls aged 0 to 14 years who have undergone FGM (as reported by their mothers), by residence, mother’s education and household wealth quintile

4

30

0 12

5 4 1 1 0

20

40

60

80

100

Total Muslim Roman Catholic

Ethnic group with highestprevalence

Ethnic group with lowestprevalence

TraditionalReligion

10

Richest

0.3 2 0.3 0 2 0.3 0

10

20

30

40

50

Primary complete

Secondary or higher

Poorest Noeducation

2315

5

Daughters whosemothers think FGM

should continue

Daughters whosemothers sayit depends

Daughters whosemothers think

FGM should stop

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 20 40 60 80 100

0-4 years

5-9 years

10-14 years 2

15+ years

Don’t know/Missing

42 26624

Source for all charts on this page: MICS 2011

9

84

7

Traditionalpractitioner

Health personnel

Don’t know/Missing

8

68

17

7

Cut, flesh removed

Type not determined/Not sure/Don’t know

Cut, no flesh removed/Nicked

Sewn closed

10% - 25%

26% - 50%

51% - 80%

Less than 10%

Above 80%

WHAT ARE THE PREVAILING ATTITUDES TOWARDS FGM?

Almost all girls and women in Ghana think that FGM should stop

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have heard about FGM, by their attitudes about whether the practice should continue

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have heard about FGM and think the practice should continue, by household wealth quintile, education, ethnicity and age

The practice of FGM has been systematically very low throughout the years

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have undergone FGM, by current age

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have undergone FGM, and percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have heard about FGM and think the practice should continue

IS THE PRACTICE OF FGM CHANGING?

Notes: N/A = not available. MICS 2011 data are not used to report on attitudes towards FGM due to the fact that information is missing for girls and women with no living daughters. Data on attitudes were not collected in the DHS 2003.

Source: MICS 2006

932 5

Think FGM should continue Think FGM should stop Say it depends/are not sure

100 20 40 60 80 0

Source: MICS 2006 Note: MICS 2011 data from Ghana are not used to report on attitudes towards FGM due to the fact that information is missing for girls and women with no living daughters.

2 4 1 3 2 2

5 1 2 1

0

10

20

30

40

50

Total Poorest higher

Ethnic group with highest support

Ethnic group with lowest support

Source: MICS 2011

6 7 6 4 3 2 2

45-49 years 40-44 years 35-39 years 30-34 years 25-29 years 20-24 years 15-19 years 0

10

20

30

40

50

5 4N/A N/A

0

20

40

60

80

100

DHS 2003 MICS 2011

Prevalence of FGM Think FGM should continue

MICS 2006

4 2

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have undergone FGM

Percentage of girls aged 0 to 14 years who have undergone FGM (as reported by their mothers)

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have heard about FGM and think the practice should continue

GHANA

INTER-COUNTRY STATISTICAL OVERVIEW

Notes: Data on attitudes for Yemen refer to ever-married girls and women. In Liberia, girls and women who have heard of the Sande society were asked whether they were members; this provides indirect information on FGM since it is performed during initiation into the society. Egypt data refer to girls aged 1 to 14 years and Indonesia data refer to girls aged 0 to 11 years. An older source is used to report on the prevalence of FGM among girls aged 0 to 14 years for Gambia (MICS 2010) and Uganda (DHS 2011) since the latest source did not collect these data. MICS data for Ghana (2011) could not be used to report on attitudes towards FGM due to the fact that information is missing for girls and women with no living daughters; data from MICS 2006 are used instead. In Liberia, only cut girls and women were asked about their attitudes towards FGM; since girls and women from practicing communities are more likely to support the practice, the level of support in this country as captured by DHS 2013 is higher than would be expected had all girls and women been asked their opinion. Prevalence data on FGM for girls and women aged 15 to 49 years and data on attitudes towards FGM are not available for Indonesia.

Sources: DHS, MICS, Health Issues Survey, Population and Health Survey and RISKESDAS, 2004-2018.

Updated January 2019

FOR MORE INFORMATIONData and Analytics Section - Division of Data, Research and Policy

UNICEF, 3 UN Plaza, New York, 10017Website: data.unicef.org Email: data@unicef.org

1 0.3 2 4 5 7 9 10 19

24 24 18 21

37 384544

67 65

76 75

87 86 83 83 8793 97 98

0

20

40

60

80

100

Somali

a

Guinea

Djibou

tiEgy

pt

EritreaMali

Sierra

Leon

eSud

an

Gambia

Burkina

Faso

Ethiop

ia

Maurita

nia

Liberi

a

Guinea

-Biss

auCha

dKen

ya

Nigeria

Seneg

al

Centra

l Afric

an

Repub

licYem

en

United

Rep

ublic

of Tan

zaniaBen

inIraq

Togo

Ghana

Niger

Ugand

a

Camero

on

Côte d’

Ivoire

0

20

40

60

80

100

0.2 0.4 310

29

45

33

73

Benin

Kenya

Cha

d

Guinea

-Biss

au

Guinea

Eritrea

Mali

United

Rep

ublic

of Tan

zania

13

Burkina

Faso

1

Centra

l Afric

an

Repub

lic

14

Egypt

16

Ethiop

ia

1

Ghana

0.3

Togo

1

Ugand

a

56

Gambia

49

Indon

esia

51

Maurita

nia

13

Nigeria

14

Seneg

al

8

Sierra

Leon

e

30

Sudan

1

Iraq

10

Côte d'

Ivoire

1 2 3 3 3 6 6 7 9 9 11 12 13 14 15 1922

18

3729

3936

41

54

65 65 6875

67

Benin

Togo

Ghana

Niger

Iraq

Camero

on

Ugand

a

Burkina

Faso

Kenya

Côte d'

Ivoire

Seneg

al

Nigeria

Ethiop

ia

Guinea

-Biss

au

Djibou

ti

Chad

Maurita

nia

Yemen

Sudan

Liberi

a

Eritrea

Egypt

Gambia

Somali

a

Sierra

Leon

e

Guinea

Mali

0

20

40

60

80

100

Centra

l Afric

an

Repub

lic

United

Rep

ublic

of Tanz

ania