The goal of this research has been to add to the understanding of the relationship between subjective well-being, psychological needs, leisure activities and motivation to participate in these activities as well as sociodemographic factors of age and gender at different stages of life. Guided by the theory of self-determination, which emphasizes the importance of meeting psychological needs in terms of long-term accumulation of daily achievement of experiences of autonomy, competence and sense of connection for subjective well-being, and the theory of activity, which emphasizes that higher frequencies of participation and more intimate activities are associated with higher levels of subjective wellbeing, the hypotheses have been set that are partially confirmed by this research. There were 611 participants in online research, 98 of whom were male and 513 females. The Basic Psychological Needs Scale, The Satisfaction with Life scale, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, The Hedonic and Eudemonic Motives for Activities scale, Leisure Activities Scale, and indicators of primary leisure activities were used. The results of multiple linear regression analysis by which we compared 3 models indicate that the satisfaction of psychological needs explains life satisfaction to a greater extent than motivation. In addition, within this model, higher levels of satisfaction of all psychological needs and eudemonistic, but not hedonistic motivation, predict life satisfaction. Women have a more pronounced hedonic motivation and need for connection and felt more unpleasant emotions than men. Participants in the emerging adulthood age group felt more unpleasant emotions than young adults and middle-aged and mature adults, who did not differ from each other. The difference between men and women in experienced unpleasant emotions is almost nonexistent in young adulthood, while in emerging adulthood and middle and mature adulthood, women experience more intense unpleasant emotions than men. Such a result is understandable in the context of previous research. The result of the research contributes to understanding of subjective well-being and encourage further research in the direction of studying the contribution of leisure activities and psychological needs in different stages of life.