This paper explores the determinants of subjective wellbeing in rural communities in Ghana. Using data collected from 310 households from ten rural communities in the Juaben Municipality in Ghana, we investigate the factors that influence subjective wellbeing among residents as well as formulate a model to measure happiness using the OLS and ordinal probit regression models. The study shows that happiness for rural residents, just like in urban areas, is multidimensional and depends on household characteristics. The findings indicate that self-reported happiness varied significantly with gender, marital status, religious background, occupation and source of employment as well as settlement type. Based on the model formulated, the study further found that the average level of happiness in the study communities was 4.79 on a scale of 0–10. The results of the ordinal regression indicate that respondents employed in the public service are happier than those who are self-employed. The transportation dimension was ranked as the most significant dimension basically because of the poor condition of the roads to these villages. The paper therefore recommends the improvement of the major roads in rural areas as good roads tend to contribute substantially to the overall wellbeing of rural dwellers in Ghana.

本文探讨了加纳农村社区主观幸福感的决定因素。使用从加纳Juaben市十个农村社区的310户家庭收集的数据，我们调查了影响居民主观幸福感的因素，并建立了使用OLS和序数概率回归模型衡量幸福感的模型。研究表明，与城市地区一样，农村居民的幸福感是多维的，并取决于家庭的特征。研究结果表明，自我报告的幸福随着性别，婚姻状况，宗教背景，职业和就业来源以及定居类型的不同而有显着差异。根据制定的模型，研究进一步发现，研究社区的平均幸福水平为4.79（0至10）。序数回归的结果表明，在公共服务部门工作的受访者比自雇人士更快乐。基本上由于通往这些村庄的道路条件差，运输维度被认为是最重要的维度。因此，本文建议改善农村地区的主要道路，因为良好的道路往往会为加纳农村居民的总体福祉做出重大贡献。