Netherlands sixth on World Happiness Report
The Netherlands is the sixth happiest country in the world, according to the annual World Happiness Report. The country dropped one spot compared to last year. Excluding some minor movements, the top 20 happiest countries in the world are the same as last year.
The researchers ranked 153 countries on factors like prosperity, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, perceptions of corruption, and trust. The Netherlands scored particularly well on prosperity - the GDP per capita - and social support.
"The top countries tend to have high values for most of the key variables that have been found to support well being," the researchers said. "To such a degree that year to year changes in the top rankings are to be expected."
Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and Norway are the top 5 happiest countries. Canada and Australia came in 11th and 12th on the list, the United Kingdom 13th, and the United States 18th. The Netherlands' neighbors Germany and Belgium ranked 13th and 20th respectively.
At the bottom are Afghanistan, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and the Central African Republic.
Top 10 happiest countries in the world:
- Finland
- Denmark
- Switzerland
- Iceland
- Norway
- Netherlands
- Sweden
- New Zealand
- Austria
- Luxembourg
