Ethnic Assimilation in Accra, Ghana

John R. Weeks, San Diego State University
Samuel Agyei-Mensah, University of Ghana
George Owusu, University of Ghana
Allan G. Hill, Harvard University
Magdalena Benza Fiocco, San Diego State University

Ethnic group relationships are typically evaluated by calculating measures of residential segregation or clustering, such as the index of dissimilarity at the global level and/or the location quotient at the local level, and the majority of studies focus on urban areas in richer countries. However, very little literature exists on ethnic patterns of residential clustering within cities of developing countries, and even less on the most extreme measure of intergroup assimilation—ethnic mixing within households. In this study we use neighborhood and household-level data from the 2000 Census of Ghana to provide a novel assessment of the spatial pattern of ethnic assimilation in the capital city of Accra.