Netherlands ranked sixth happiest country in the world

The Netherlands is
ranked the world’s sixth happiest country in the latest World Happiness
Report.

Although the country is once again one of the jolliest in the world, it
has slipped one place since last year, and is – according to the report
based on data from the Gallup World Poll – slightly less contented than
it was between 2008 and 2012.

However, only in Finland (first), Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and
Norway are people happier.

The study assesses factors including the healthy life expectancy, social
support, freedom and average income in the countries, alongside the
levels of corruption, trust, generosity and people’s own ‘life
evaluation’ – which includes their personal feeling of safety.

The Netherlands is categorised alongside ‘Nordic countries’ and the
researchers say that it does better than Europe as a whole because of
levels of social and institutional trust, as well as social connection.
However, as in some other developed highly economies, people feel less
happy in Dutch cities than they do in rural areas.


Read more at DutchNews.nl:

The Netherlands is
ranked the world’s sixth happiest country in the latest World Happiness
Report.

Although the country is once again one of the jolliest in the world, it
has slipped one place since last year, and is – according to the report
based on data from the Gallup World Poll – slightly less contented than
it was between 2008 and 2012.

However, only in Finland (first), Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and
Norway are people happier.

The study assesses factors including the healthy life expectancy, social
support, freedom and average income in the countries, alongside the
levels of corruption, trust, generosity and people’s own ‘life
evaluation’ – which includes their personal feeling of safety.

The Netherlands is categorised alongside ‘Nordic countries’ and the
researchers say that it does better than Europe as a whole because of
levels of social and institutional trust, as well as social connection.
However, as in some other developed highly economies, people feel less
happy in Dutch cities than they do in rural areas.


Read more at DutchNews.nl:

The Netherlands is ranked the world’s sixth happiest country in the latest World Happiness Report.

Although the country is once again one of the jolliest in the world, it has slipped one place since last year, and is – according to the report based on data from the Gallup World Poll – slightly less contented than it was between 2008 and 2012.

However, only in Finland (first), Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and Norway are people happier. The study assesses factors including the healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom and average income in the countries, alongside the levels of corruption, trust, generosity and people’s own ‘life evaluation’ – which includes their personal feeling of safety.

The Netherlands is categorised alongside ‘Nordic countries’ and the researchers say that it does better than Europe as a whole because of levels of social and institutional trust, as well as social connection.

However, as in some other developed highly economies, people feel less happy in Dutch cities than they do in rural areas.

Read more at: Netherlands ranked sixth happiest country in the world - DutchNews.nl

EU: Going Dutch? What Americans can learn from how children are raised in the Netherlands - by Amy Perrette

Dutch grammar school

 When Rina Mae Acosta, originally from California, fell in love with a Dutch man, they got married and moved to the Netherlands. At first she wasn’t sure what to make of the new culture. But as soon as she became a parent, she was struck by the richness of Dutch family life — by how independent, resilient and happy Dutch children seemed.

Data backs up Acosta's impression. In the latest UNICEF study ranking 29 of the world's richest industrialized countries according to child well-being, Dutch children come out on top. America ranks 26th, just above Lithuania and Latvia.

Acosta and her British friend, Michele Hutchison (also an expat married to a Dutch man), decided to document the differences they saw between their own pressurized childhoods and the Dutch parenting style, and explain what it is about the Dutch approach that is producing such contented kids. The result is their book, "The Happiest Kids in the World: How Dutch Parents Help Their Kids (and Themselves) by Doing Less."

“Scrap the idea of ‘quality time,’ as American and British parents know it,” says Hutchison. “That is too stressful and puts too much pressure on planning and finances.”

Instead, Dutch parents enjoy spending lots of relaxed time together at family meals, or having the children play nearby while the parent is attending to his or her own interests and projects.

Part of why Dutch parents are able to have that low-key family time is because they allow their children a high degree of independence, even allowing them to climb trees unsupervised and bike alone at a young age.

“It isn’t that the Dutch aren’t aware of risk,” Acosta says. “They just keep the risk in perspective.”

Dutch kids are not taught to read and write until about age 7 and don’t get regular homework until their early teenage years, yet they score at the top of educational achievement and participation in the same UNICEF study.

Catherine Tamis-LeMonda, professor of applied psychology at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, says that low-stress start to schooling makes good sense.

“A huge number of studies show that children's motivation to do things — to be engaged, to learn about their world — goes up when they make choices about what to do,” she says.

Stressing less and relaxing more as the recipe for happy children? It might be time we all “go Dutch.”

Read more: Going Dutch? What Americans can learn from how children are raised in the Netherlands - TODAY.com