Demographic Influences on Rural Households’ Saving and Investment: A Study of Rural Households in the Ho Municipality of Ghana

The main objective of the study was to explore the demographic characteristics of household heads in rural Ho Municipality and to find out how these demographic characteristics affect the savings and investment behaviour of the said household. The population used for the study was rural families in the Ho Municipality of the Volta Region of Ghana. The sample size of 160 households was drawn from the population using the multi-stage cluster sampling technique. Frequencies, percentages and correlations were used to present the demographic characteristics and correlation was used to establish relationship between the variables. The findings showed that there was a direct positive relationship between age of household head and insurance, knowledge of savings and insurance and family size and difficulty in savings. There is however a negative relationship between age of household head and savings and investment, income level and insurance and savings. It was concluded that there is s mixed influence of family characteristics on the family’s savings and investment behaviour. The findings have important policy implications for rural poverty alleviation among households in developing countries. Based on these findings it is concluded that demographic characteristics of rural families in the study area in one way or the other, have some influence on the households’ saving and investment behaviour.