Netherlands the sixth happiest country in the world; Down one spot

The Netherlands is the sixth happiest country in the world, according to the World Happiness Report 2024. Our country dropped one spot compared to last year. Finland is the happiest country for the 7th year running, though Denmark is catching up, the researchers said.

For this report, researchers from Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network surveyed people on their life satisfaction and looked at things like the gross national product per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption in a country.

They found that happiness differs a lot for the young and the old. “In some cases, these differences favor the old, as in the United States and Canada, where the rankings for those aged 60 and older are 50 or more places higher than for those under 30. In other cases, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, the reverse is true.” The Netherlands is one of the countries where the elderly are happier than the young, but the difference is much less stark. Dutch people over 60 are the 7th happiest in the world, while Dutch under 30 are the 9th.

For the first time since the report’s first publication over a decade ago, the United States (23rd) and Germany (24th) dropped out of the top 20 happiest countries. None of the countries with the largest populations are in the top 20 anymore. “In the top ten countries only the Netherlands and Australia have populations over 15 million. In the whole of the top twenty, only Canada and the United Kingdom have populations over 30 million.”

The researchers noted that global happiness inequality has increased by over 20 percent over the past decade in all regions and age groups. Though the extent differs a lot by age and region. Men also tend to be happier than women. “In 2021-2023, negative emotions were in every region more prevalent for females than males,” the researchers said. The gender gap was larger at higher ages almost everywhere.

According to the researchers, Finland residents maintain their top spot for happiness through their close bond with nature and a healthy work-life balance. The Finns also have a strong welfare society, high trust in state authorities, low levels of corruption, and free healthcare and education.

The Eastern European countries of Serbia, Bulgaria, and Latvia had the largest increase in their experienced happiness. The sharpest declines were in Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Jordan. Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian crisis since the Taliban regained control in 2020, is the unhappiest country in the world at 143rd place, the same as last year.