Almost 90% of NL residents are happy

Nine out of ten adult Netherlands residents (88 percent) say they are happy. Older people in particular are more likely to be happy, as are highly educated. This is reported by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) based on new figures from 2019.

According to the statistics office, well-being in the Netherlands has been at a high level for years and differences in happiness and satisfaction are limited. The 'happiness level' was fairly stable between 2013 and 2019.

However, in 2019 there were more people who rated their happiness extremely low, compared to five years earlier. There were also population groups in which the differences in the experience of happiness were greater than in other groups. There was also more inequality in well-being, especially among young people and the low-educated.

For example, there were fewer happy people among the low-educated (86 percent) than among the highly educated (92 percent). People with a secondary education were in between. At 92 percent, 65 to 75-year-olds also had a higher percentage of happy people than other age groups (88 or 89 percent).

Among the 18 to 25-year-olds, the differences between levels of education were greater than among the 65 to 75-year-olds. The difference in happiness between low and highly educated young people is therefore greater than the difference between low and highly educated older people. Low educated young people are more often unhappy than highly educated young people, while there is virtually no difference between the older low educated and highly educated people.

According to CBS, the proportion of happy people also increased the higher the income. Young adults with work had a significantly higher well-being than young adults without work.