Regions, cities and places of Ghana
The Cities and Towns of Ghana: All Sixteen Regions, 261 Districts
Ghana is not Accra. It is sixteen regions, two hundred and sixty-one district assemblies, and a few hundred towns where the actual work of the country gets done — gold at Obuasi, oil at Takoradi, salt at Keta, yams at Techiman, and a fishing beach at Elmina that has been landing catch since before the Portuguese arrived. Here is the country beyond the two big cities.
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On this page
- How Ghana is actually organised
- The largest cities
- The south — Greater Accra, Central, Volta
- The west — Western, Western North
- The middle — Ashanti, Eastern, Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Oti
- The north — Northern, Savannah, North East, Upper East, Upper West
- Where to actually go
How Ghana is actually organised
Ghana runs on three tiers, and knowing them saves a lot of confusion when reading Ghanaian news or trying to work out where a place sits.
Regions
16, each with a Regional Coordinating Council and a regional capital
District assemblies
261 in total — Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, known collectively as MMDAs
The three grades
Metropolitan for the largest urban areas, Municipal for single substantial towns, District for the rest
Who runs them
A Chief Executive appointed by the President, with an elected assembly
Alongside all of it
Traditional authority — paramountcies, divisional chiefs and stools, which govern land and custom in parallel with the state
Six new regions were created in 2018 and 2019, taking the count from ten to sixteen: Bono East and Ahafo split from the old Brong-Ahafo, Western North from Western, Savannah and North East from Northern, and Oti from Volta. If you are reading anything published before 2019 — including a great many maps and guidebooks still in print — it will show ten regions and be wrong.
Two hundred and sixty-one districts is why Ghanaian political news reads the way it does. Every one of them has a chief executive, a budget and a grievance.
The largest cities
Figures below are from the 2021 Population and Housing Census. Treat urban populations in Ghana with some caution — municipal boundaries have been redrawn repeatedly, so a city can appear to shrink between censuses when in fact its district was subdivided.
Accra — Greater Accra
2,864,779. The capital, the seat of government, and the country’s commercial centre.
Kumasi — Ashanti
2,495,580. The Asante capital and Ghana’s cultural heart, closing the gap on Accra.
Tamale — Northern
749,488. The northern capital and one of West Africa’s fastest-growing cities.
Sunyani — Bono
329,597. Widely reckoned the cleanest and best-planned city in Ghana.
Cape Coast — Central
306,034. The colonial capital until 1877, and Ghana’s education town.
Sekondi-Takoradi — Western
245,382. The twin cities, the deep-water port and the centre of the offshore oil industry.
Ashaiman — Greater Accra
208,060. Dense, working and overwhelmingly young, next to Tema.
Obuasi — Ashanti
196,698. A gold-mining town for well over a century, and the story of Ghanaian gold in one place.
The south — Greater Accra, Central, Volta
Greater Accra Region
Capital: Accra
TemaGhana’s industrial city and main port, built from nothing under Nkrumah on a planned grid. Refineries, factories and the harbour that most of the country’s imports pass through.
AshaimanImmediately inland of Tema and utterly unlike it — unplanned, dense, and one of the most energetic places in the country.
Ada FoahWhere the Volta meets the sea. Estuary, sandbars, turtle nesting and the Asafotufiami festival.
PrampramFishing town on the coast east of Tema, with Fort Vernon above the shore.
DodowaShai Hills country, and the district capital of Shai Osudoku.
Teshie and NunguaCoastal Ga towns now absorbed into the Accra sprawl, and where the fantasy coffin workshops are.
ElminaThe oldest European building in sub-Saharan Africa stands here, and the fishing harbour below it is one of the great sights of the West African coast.
WinnebaAboakyer — the deer hunt festival — and a long tradition of education. King Ghartey IV made this a town that punched above its size.
KasoaOn the Accra border and growing at a rate nobody planned for. Its market is one of the busiest in the country.
Agona SwedruCommercial town inland, a serious market centre.
MankessimFounding place of the Fante, and the site of the 1871 Fante Confederation.
Assin MansoThe Slave River, where captives were washed before the coast. One of the most significant sites in the country.
Saltpond, Apam and AnomaboCoastal towns with forts — Anomabo in particular saw more of the trade than its size suggests.
HohoeThe base for Wli Falls and Mount Afadja, and the busiest town in the north of the region.
KetaFort Prinzenstein, the lagoon, the salt industry, and a town the sea has been steadily taking back.
KpandoLakeside town on the Volta, with a pottery tradition.
AflaoThe Togo border crossing. Busy, and the main land gate to Lomé.
Sogakope and AkatsiOn the Volta and the road east — where most people stop between Accra and the border.
AnlogaAnlo Ewe heartland and the home of Hogbetsotso.
The west — Western, Western North
TarkwaGold-mining town, and the place where the cost of that industry to the rivers is most visible.
AximFort San Antonio on the headland, and some of the best beaches in Ghana below it.
Prestea and BogosoMore gold country, inland from Tarkwa.
Half Assini and BeyinThe far south-west corner. Beyin is the jumping-off point for Nzulezo, the stilt village on the lagoon.
EluboThe Côte d’Ivoire border crossing.
Dixcove and BusuaFort Metal Cross above a working fishing harbour, and the beach that draws surfers.
BibianiGold town with a long mining history.
EnchiAowin district capital, in cocoa country.
Juaboso and BodiDeep cocoa and timber country, and the approach to Bia National Park.
The middle — Ashanti, Eastern, Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Oti
Ashanti Region
Capital: Kumasi
ObuasiOne of the oldest continuously worked gold mines in the world. The town exists because of it and has lived through every cycle of the industry.
EjisuYaa Asantewaa’s town, and the site of the war of 1900.
Mampong and BekwaiMajor Asante traditional states in their own right, each with its own paramountcy.
Konongo and AgogoOn the Accra road, in the Asante Akyem country.
Bonwire and NtonsoKente weaving and Adinkra printing — the two craft towns everyone visiting Kumasi should see.
Offinso and Asokore MampongMunicipal centres in the Kumasi orbit.
AburiThe gardens, the hills, the cool air, and the woodcarvers’ road.
AkosomboThe dam, Lake Volta, and the town built to serve them.
KibiSeat of the Okyenhene and the gateway to the Atewa Range.
NkawkawHalfway between Accra and Kumasi, below the Kwahu escarpment.
Somanya and Odumase KroboKrobo country — recycled glass beads and the Dipo rite.
Akropong and Mampong AkuapemOn the Akuapem ridge, and the birthplace of written Twi scholarship.
Nsawam, Suhum and AsamankeseOn the Accra–Kumasi road, in pineapple and cocoa country.
Akwatia and OdaDiamonds and timber.
BerekumSubstantial municipal town near the Côte d’Ivoire border, in the middle of the Amoma river dispute.
Dormaa AhenkroSeat of the Dormaa traditional state.
WenchiOn the northern road, in yam country.
Drobo and SampaBorder towns on the Ivorian frontier.
KintampoThe waterfalls, and the geographical centre of Ghana.
NkoranzaNearest town to the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary.
Atebubu and YejiYeji is the Volta Lake ferry crossing to the north.
Prang and Kwame DansoDistrict centres in the lake country.
Ahafo Region
Capital: Goaso
BechemTano South district centre.
Duayaw NkwantaTano North, on the Sunyani road.
Kenyasi and HwidiemAsutifi — gold mining country, with all that follows.
Jasikan and KadjebiIn the hills of the old Buem country.
NkwantaThe approach to Kyabobo National Park and the Togo hills.
Kete KrachiOn Lake Volta, and the old Krachi shrine country.
The north — Northern, Savannah, North East, Upper East, Upper West
Northern Region
Capital: Tamale
YendiSeat of the Ya-Na and the capital of Dagbon — older and, in traditional terms, more important than Tamale.
SaveluguMunicipal town north of Tamale.
BimbillaNanumba capital, in the south-east of the region.
Gushegu, Karaga and ZabzuguDistrict centres across the Dagbon countryside.
SalagaThe great slave market of the north. The wells where captives were washed are still there.
LarabangaThe oldest mosque in Ghana, and the village at the gate of Mole National Park.
Bole and SawlaWestern Gonja, on the road towards Côte d’Ivoire.
Buipe and DaboyaBuipe on the White Volta; Daboya for its indigo-dyed cloth.
WalewaleThe largest town in the region and the junction for the Upper East.
GambagaThe escarpment, and the settlement that has sheltered women accused of witchcraft for generations.
Chereponi and BunkpuruguEastern district centres near the Togo border.
PagaThe crocodile ponds and the Burkina Faso border. Pikworo slave camp is nearby.
BawkuTrading town at the meeting of three countries, and a place with a long and difficult chieftaincy dispute.
NavrongoThe mud-and-daub cathedral, painted in the Kassena style. Unlike anything else in the country.
Sandema and TongoSandema for Feok; Tongo for the Tengzug shrine and the rock hills.
Zebilla and BongoDistrict centres in the north-east corner.
Upper West Region
Capital: Wa
NakoreThe ancient mosque, in the Sudanese-Sahelian style, just outside Wa.
GwolluThe defence wall, built to keep slave raiders out. Still standing.
WechiauThe community hippo sanctuary on the Black Volta — one of the best community conservation projects in the country.
Jirapa, Nandom and LawraDagaaba country. Lawra for Kobine, Nandom for Kakube.
TumuSissala East capital, in the far north.
Getting between them
Ghana tours and transfers
Distances in Ghana are deceptive — Accra to Tamale is twelve hours by road and an hour by air. For anything beyond the coastal strip, a driver or an organised tour saves more time than it costs, particularly if you are trying to reach places like Wechiau, Gwollu or Nzulezo where public transport thins out considerably.
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Where to actually go
If you have a week and want the famous things: Accra, Cape Coast and Elmina, Kakum, Kumasi. It is the standard route because it works.
If you have been before: go north. Tamale, Mole via Larabanga, Salaga, then west through Damongo to Wa, Wechiau and Gwollu. Almost nobody does this and it is the more interesting country.
If you want the coast without the crowds: the Western Region from Busua to Beyin — Dixcove, Axim, Nzulezo. Better beaches than anywhere nearer Accra.
If you want to understand modern Ghana rather than historical Ghana: Tema and Ashaiman on the same day. The planned industrial city and the unplanned one beside it, ten minutes apart, tell you more about the last seventy years than any museum.
Roughly two hundred and sixty-one district capitals means there is always somewhere on this list nobody has written about properly. If you know one of these towns and think we have it wrong, or missed something that matters, tell us — several of the pages on this site began as corrections from readers.
Connected reading on ghana-net.com
Verified: 25 August 2026.
Administrative structure — 16 regions and 261 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies — per Ghana’s Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. The six newest regions were created following referendums in 2018 and took effect in 2019. Population figures are from the 2021 Population and Housing Census conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service; urban populations in Ghana are sensitive to administrative boundary changes and are not always comparable between censuses. Town descriptions reflect first-hand visits over more than two decades and the current administrative position; district capitals and boundaries change, and traditional-authority seats do not always coincide with administrative ones.
