Accra in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Accra in context

3.23.644.44.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3.23.644.44.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AccraGreater Accra (Region)Ghana (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Accra plotted against Greater Accra and Ghana. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Accra's incremental SNDi rose from 3.4 to 3.76 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Accra ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Greater Accra and 23rd out of 53 in Ghana as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.76
Rank in Ghana
16th of 53
Rank in Greater Accra
1st of 1

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.5
Rank in Ghana
23rd of 53
Rank in Greater Accra
1st of 1

Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.

What about similarly populated cities?

23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AccraHong KongNairobi

In new street additions, Accra and Hong Kong both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Nairobi built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Accra fluctuated in connectivity, while Hong Kong became progressively more disconnected and Nairobi grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved.