Abstract
Socioeconomic development and happiness are multidimensional phenomena that are difficult to define and measure. Global indicators, such as the Human Development Index (HDI) and the World Happiness Index (WHI), facilitate international comparisons, but they do not always sufficiently differentiate countries representing similar levels of development. This problem is particularly visible in Sub-Saharan Africa, where countries differ considerably in terms of their socioeconomic conditions despite sharing many common regional characteristics. The aim of our research is to compare Sub-Saharan African countries using the Human Development Index, the World Happiness Index and their components, to identify the determinants of life satisfaction, and to construct synthetic measures describing the quality of life in the region. The analysis is based on data published in the World Happiness Report 2025 and the Human Development Report 2024. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and Hellwig's taxonomic method are applied to construct composite indicators and rank countries. The results show that the relationships between life satisfaction and its determinants differ across groups of countries. GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy and freedom to make life choices are the most important determinants of life satisfaction, although their influence varies between groups. The comparison of the HDI and WHI also indicates that the relationship between socioeconomic development and subjective well-being is relatively weak in Sub-Saharan Africa. The proposed synthetic measures constitute an alternative regional approach that enables a more comprehensive assessment of life satisfaction and socioeconomic development in Sub-Saharan Africa than global indicators alone.