The Northern Region is one of the sixteen regions of Ghana. It is situated in the northern part of the country and ranks as the second largest of the sixteen regions. Before its division, it covered an area of 25,000 square kilometers, representing 10 percent of Ghana's area. In December 2018, the Savannah Region and North East Region were created from it. The Northern Region is divided into 16 districts. The region's capital is Tamale, Ghana's third largest city.

Location and Size

The Northern Region, with Tamale as its capital, covers an area of 70,384km square making it the largest region in terms of landmass in Ghana. Geographically the Region is located between latitude 8o 30’N and 10o 30’N and stretches from longitude 0º31’E and 0º30ºW. It occupies about 30% of the total land area of the country. The Region shares borders with the Republic of La Cote d’Ivoire to the West, Republic of Togo to the East, Brong-Ahafo and Volta Regions to the South and Upper East and Upper West Regions to the North-East and North-West respectively.

Demographic Characteristic

According to the 2010 Population and Housing Census the total population of the region is 2,479,461 with a growth rate of 2.9% per annum of which 1,229,887 (49.6%) are males and 1,249,574 (50.4%) females.
The population is predominantly rural with over 73% living in communities of population of between 200 – 2000 people and 95% of settlements having fewer than 500 inhabitants. The region has a population density of about 35 persons per sq. km.

Land Mass

Northern region occupies about one-third (1/3) of the land surface area of Ghana, with a total land mass of 7 million hectares. The available land for agricultural production is about 4.9 million hectares, out of which 735,000 hectares (Representing 15% of the 4.9 million hectares) is under crop production. Part of the remainder is used for rearing livestock and the rest approximately 2.5 million hectares is potentially available for agricultural purposes; particularly for the cultivation of maize, rice, soya, yams, and other legumes. Other commercial crops are butter nut, mangoes and cashew.  Read more