What? We can’t share our pride in the best little country in the world? Well, we’re doing it anyway! Why? Because despite all our complaints, we really genuinely love the Netherlands.
We hope you’ll enjoy this article and specially made video and discover something new and interesting among the seven things the Dutch are great at!
Happy children: it’s fun to be young in Holland!
The Netherlands persistently ranks as one of the highest countries for child happiness. The United Nations rated Dutch children the happiest in the world in their 2020 UNICEF Child Happiness Index of the 41 wealthiest industrialised nations.
The researchers assessed the children’s mental health, physical health, and academic and social skills. They also spoke to children themselves to find out how they themselves feel about their lives, without just using scientific data. Guess what? 93% of kids said they were happy! What’s not to love about that?!
READ MORE | 4 reasons why Dutch kids are happier than American kids
The world’s second-biggest food exporter
Yep, a country so small you can drive through it from its northern to southern tip (the largest distance) in just about two hours if you don’t hit any heavy traffic. And somehow the Dutch still manage to crank out enough food to feed the world!
In comparison, the US is the largest food exporter but is also 230(!) times bigger than Holland. Can you imagine that medal ceremony? On the highest block stands a buff American waving a massive flag, and next to them stands nothing but a tiny little Dutch flag, on a toothpick, that gently waves back and forth. That little flag is being held by a stubborn, but very happy, little ant — that’s Holland for you!
The Dutch have built their own little agricultural powerhouse, no bigger than Maryland, upon some of the most fertile soil in the world. It’s carefully divided into countless farm plots, all conspicuously irrigated by means of the typical Dutch polders.
READ MORE | Farming for the future: why the Netherlands is the 2nd largest food exporter in the world
Sex education and having the lowest rate of teen pregnancies in the EU
You know how it goes, ‘If you don’t want babies, don’t have sex!’ Or, ‘If kids are exposed to sex ed, they’ll want to have sex and get pregnant!’ Well, if there’s one country proving these ideas wrong, it’s the Netherlands!
The Dutch don’t believe in forbidding things or keeping things secret and hushed up. In little Holland, it’s all out in the open. The Netherlands has been giving teens, even children, sex education for decades, giving them a heads up about what it’s all about and what the risks are. No, don’t worry — they’re not showing them porn!
We had more sex-ed classes in high school and even a visit from the Rutgers Foundation (set up in the ’70s to spread awareness of anti-conception) which gave us a clear understanding of what was going on with us internally and externally. And though we had a good laugh or two, we became even more aware that even though sex was fun, it could come with a price tag. One that screams, cries, vomits, and poops…
The point is that the Dutch have proven that sex education and an open attitude help young men and women understand things ahead of “experimenting” without any guidance – teens try things out because they can. If you give them a heads up about what matters, you’ll be surprised how many of them do listen! If it works for Holland, don’t you think it’d work elsewhere too?
READ MORE | The complete and unadulterated guide to sex in the Netherlands
Growing tall: Dutchmen largest in the world
Do you like tall men? Welcome to Holland! Where men grow to astounding heights! Yours truly stands less than an inch shy of six feet tall which actually makes me just below average in the Netherlands. In fact, some of my college buddies were so tall, I only reached to their shoulder! Yes, really. And it’s not an uncommon sight in the streets of Dutch cities to meet men, and the occasional woman, of such height.
The reason behind Dutch height isn’t just being genetically lucky, it’s all about food and good health. The Dutch have been able to provide themselves, and especially their youngsters, with a proper diet, a healthy environment and great access to medical care.
Other than a short, but harsh, Hunger Winter after WWII, the country has persistently become healthier and focused on trying to improve things for each successive generation. With success, the Dutch have gained 20 centimetres (8 inches) of the last century and a half!
READ MORE | The tallest people come from: the lowlands! Dutch rank ‘high’ in new study
More bikes per capita than any other European country
You like bikes? The ones with the pedals and the exercise? If the answer is yes, you came to the right place! The Netherlands has almost as many bikes as it has people. That’s no joke. In fact, many of us own multiple bikes. There’s one of them in the shed outside and two parked on the carport of my house. One for me, one for my mom, and one for a friend from Spain.
In 2017, 68% of work and school traffic in Amsterdam was by bike! Cycling counts for 36% of all forms of traffic in the city.
Of course, it helps that Amsterdam, and almost all cities and towns in the country, are extremely “bike-friendly.” You have your own lanes, you often have right of passage, you can rent them, and you have parking accommodations.
Plus, if something goes wrong with your bike, there’s a pretty good chance a fellow cyclist will show up and help you with that flat tire or broken light.
Another added benefit is that cycling is great exercise, which is one of the secrets to the Dutch being relatively slender and healthy. You will see Dutch toddlers ride bikes before they can even walk properly. The Dutch are, so to speak, born with a bike between their legs.
READ MORE | Biking the Dutch dream: The Dutch and their bikes
The world’s best water management systems
You probably figured there’s some dark secret behind the Dutch keeping all that water out, didn’t you? Well, it’s not as dark as you might think, even though we forged a deal with the devil, but it has cost us some real effort.
The Dutch have fought, with success, against the rivers, lakes, and seas for centuries. They’ve used their iconic windmills as pumps to clear the area, and re-shaped entire rivers, and even part of the sea, to make space.
The Netherlands, largely, is below sea level. This is both because the Dutch directly build new lands from the sea but also because of digging out the many layers of peat from the soils, which was necessary for people to make it through the cold winters.
As a result, the country suffered many floodings and loss of lives. As recent as 1953, a major amount of dikes gave way during a superstorm in the province of Zeeland, taking 2000 lives with it.
The Delta Works
After this great catastrophe, the Dutch, stubborn and steadfast as always, decided to turn the tides once and for all (quite literally in this case). They began construction on the biggest, most advanced water management system known to mankind: the Delta Works.
The Delta Works are an almost endless collection of dikes, water locks, bridges and storm barriers that interconnect across the Zeeland/Zuid-Holland region. They are built to withstand storms and waves currently unseen in history. But with the rising seas because of climate change, the Dutch are already planning further improvements.
The Delta Works is considered one of the ‘Seven Wonders of the Modern World’ by Quest magazine and the American Society of Civil Engineers.
So, if you have trouble with water, call a Dutchman! Or just put your finger in the dyke. Just your finger though, nothing else – don’t be a pervert…
READ MORE | Dutch engineering expertise and water management — a big business in the Netherlands
The best non-native English speakers on the globe.
“Yes, but, also! Dat is also a ting I can do, also!” Okay, sure, it’s not always the easiest accent on the ears but overall the Dutch speak their English very well. They’re almost always capable of understanding what you are trying to get across. That is, if you speak it properly too.
The Dutch also enjoy speaking English, which can be very frustrating to newcomers who are trying to learn the local language. When a Dutchman notices as much as a hint of an accent in your ‘finest Dutch’ many of them will automatically switch to English.
It’s spoken (almost) everywhere
English is also spoken at most important places, such as higher education institutes, as well as in hospitals, police stations, city halls, and public transportation facilities. Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn Dutch. For advancing your career it’s vital. And of course, friendships grow tighter if you can converse in the native tongue.
Here’s some Dutch for you:
Dutch, English, and German all belong to the same branch of languages, West-Germanic. They all originate from Germanic roots. Dutch, being in between Germany and the British isles, is actually quite close to English.
In fact, Dutch is the closest popularly spoken language to English in the world. In other words, apart from actual English itself, Dutch is the closest thing to it. There is Frisian, however, which is even more closely related. It’s also spoken in the Netherlands, but only has a few hundred thousand speakers in limited regions. Dutch, however, is spoken by 18 million Dutchmen and millions of Flemish in Belgium.
So, despite the fact that people like Louis van Gaal occasionally embarrass Holland on a nationwide scale with their English ability (or lack thereof), you should do fine with it in Holland. Above all, the Dutch, curious and tolerant by nature, are almost always happy to figure out a way to communicate with you, whether your English is perfect or not.
READ MORE | Why are the Dutch so good at speaking English?
What do you think are the best parts of living in the Netherlands? Let us know in the comments below!
Feature Image: djedj/Pixabay
Editor’s Note: This article was originally written in December 2017 and was fully updated in February 2021 for your reading pleasure.
My take on the tallness of the Dutch is that it must be proof of evolution – the fact that we live below sea level must mean that in the past generations our bodies are growing taller to be able to keep our head above the water. It’s simple. Survival of the tallest!
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You left out self-congratulating and conceitedness.
It’s all true, but….i think that the Dutch government must be shame himself because we also have many, many people who have to use the Food Banks!! And that’s a ridiculous context to all the things written above!
It’s sad to say this, but this is also true! For all te other things i am proud to be a dutch women, but still…..
You cant drive from Limburg to Groningen in 2 hours … even with zero traffic…wtf?
from eemshaven to maastricht is almost 4 hours… why does this article say 2 hours from north to south???
Of course they have the happiest children in the world – anyone can have happy children if you just let them do anything they want, as they Dutch do. They’re happy because they’re brats.