Have you ever looked out your window, seen even more clouds and thought “I’m out of here”? Go for it, but just know that you may already be living in one of the happiest cities in the world.
With no less than four Dutch cities landing among the top 50 rankings in the Happy City Index, it turns out that some parts of the Netherlands can be pretty great places to live — and hey, we’ve all seen how happy we can be when the sun comes out.
So, where should you make sure to be this year? Keep an eye on Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Eindhoven.
Ok, but what counts as happiness?
“Happy” is a very broad term, so how does the Happy City Index actually measure this?
It’s not as simple as stopping strangers outside train stations and asking how many dogs they’ve petted in the last 24 hours.
So before we look at where these Dutch cities ranked, let’s lay out how they even landed on the list in the first place. The research looked at specific factors:
- Citizens — Cities with the greatest social achievements
- Governance — Cities with the best governance practices
- Environment — Cities with the best environmental practices
- Economy — Cities with the best economic performance
- Health — Cities with the best health
- Mobility — Cities with the best transport infrastructure
So, where did the Dutch cities rank?
Ranking within the top 10, Rotterdam turns out to be the happiest city the Netherlands has to offer — perhaps the butt plug gnome statue has something to do with this.
Next up, sharing the 35th spot with Bruges (Belgium), we have Amsterdam (we imagine rental prices may have dragged it down a few rankings).
READ MORE | 5 reasons why Dutch kids are happier than American kids
This was followed closely by Utrecht at 37, and then, clinging on in 50th place, Eindhoven — let’s thank ASML for this… because they’re always mentioned when it comes to Eindhoven’s achievements. 🙏
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