Dutch people are happier than ever

erasmus school of economics

The Netherlands has obtained the 5th place in the World Happiness Report, a happiness measurement from the United Nations which includes 156 countries. This is an improvement as compared to last year, when the Netherlands was still on the 6th place, behind Switzerland.

Currently, only Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland have a higher ranking. Professor Ruut Veenhoven, Happiness Professor of the Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization of Erasmus University Rotterdam, we should not compare ourselves too much with the countries that have a higher ranking. Nevertheless, complaining is in the nature of Dutch people.

Dutch people are cultural pessimists, says Professor Veenhoven. We focus too much on the things that are not going well, while all rankings show us that we are happier than ever. According to the United Nations, there are many happiness factors that can explain the differences between the countries. These are, for example, freedom of choice, income, life expectancy, trust and good social relationships. Of all these factors, freedom of choice is one of the most important ones. This also explains why the Netherlands has such a high ranking: Dutch people tend to decide themselves how they want to live their lives and when they do not like something, such as their marriage or work, they immediately change it. 

Countries which are in war are - as expected - at the bottom of the list. However, when we look at the list as a whole, there are more winners than losers. Thus: the world is slowly becoming happier.

More information

Read the entire interview with Professor Veenhoven in Algemeen Dagblad, d.d. 20 March 2019 

Listen to the entire interview with Professor Veenhoven on NPO Radio 1, d.d. 21 March 2019

Read more about the World Happiness Report 2019 here

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