Upper West Region

Upper West Region
Region
Location of Upper West Region in Ghana
Country	Ghana
Capital	Wa
Districts	11
Government
• Regional Minister	Hafiz Bin Salih[1][2]
Area [3]
• Total	18,476 km2 (7,134 sq mi)
• Rank	Ranked 7th
Population  (2021 census)[4]
• Total	901,502
• Density	49/km2 (130/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)
• Year	2013
• Per capita	$5,150
GDP (Nominal)
• Year	2013
• Per capita	$2,500
Time zone	GMT
Area code	039
ISO 3166 code	GH-UW
HDI (2017)	0.518[5] low · 9th

The Upper West Region of Ghana is located in the north-western corner of Ghana^[6] and is bordered by Upper East Region to the east, Northern Region to the south, and Burkina Faso to the west and north. The Upper West regional capital and largest settlement is Wa. The Upper West was created by the then Head of State, Flight-Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings in 1983 under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) military regime. The area was carved out of the former Upper Region, which is now the Upper East Region. For about thirty-five years, it remained the youngest region of Ghana until 2018 when six more regions were created by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government; hence increasing the total number of administrative regions in the country to sixteen.