Netherlands

The Netherlands, often called Holland, lies in Northwestern Europe and also has overseas territories in the Caribbean; it is the largest of the four countries that make up the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has twelve provinces, borders Germany and Belgium, and has a North Sea coastline. Dutch is the official language, with West Frisian also official in the province of Friesland.

Ipsos ranks the Netherlands No. 2 in its Happiness Index 2026, a survey covering 29 countries. In the 2026 edition of the World Happiness Report, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford with Gallup and the UN SDSN, it is No. 7 with a life evaluation score of 7.223. In the previous edition it was No. 5 with 7.306.

The name means "lower countries", a reference to the flat land, 26% of which lies below sea level. Much of that low land consists of polders created by land reclamation that began in the 14th century. During the Dutch Golden Age the Dutch East India and West India companies set up multiple colonies and trading posts.

Sources of this text: Wikipedia · Ipsos · Wellbeing Research Centre Oxford / Gallup / UN SDSN