Dutch sixth in world happiness ranking, but migrants rate it 11th

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The Netherlands remains in sixth place on the UN’s ranking of the world’s happiest nations, behind four Scandinavian countries and Switzerland.

Every year, the UN ranks 150 countries in terms of their population’s self-reported wellbeing, as well as perceptions of corruption, generosity and freedom. War-torn Burundi was bottom of the list.

This year, the ranking also included an analysis of the happiness of foreign-born migrants and again the list was topped by Finland. The Netherlands was in 11th place in this ranking, behind Mexico and just above Israel.

The report’s authors say that perhaps the most striking finding is that a ranking of countries according to the happiness of their immigrant populations is almost exactly the same as for the rest of the population – with the Netherlands the only top 10 country to drop out.

The closeness of the two rankings shows that the happiness of immigrants depends predominantly on the quality of life where they now live, the report states.

‘The countries with the happiest immigrants are not the richest countries, but instead the countries with a more balanced set of social and institutional supports for better lives,’ the report’s authors say.

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