The Netherlands: Happiness is a Number

My hotel(Hotel aan de Maas) in Rotterdam

A lovely picture of the Netherlands' countryside

I decided to commence my journey in the land of the Dutch, the Netherlands. Listening to Dutch being spoken outside my hotel was a peculiar experience to say the least- it sounds exactly like English spoken backwards. My hotel is located in the city of Rotterdam, which serves as a large disappointment for the kickoff city on my quest to uncover the happiest place in the world. You can almost feel the Dutch/Muslim tension walking the streets here in the depressingly dank, gray weather. Now, you might ask: Why would you decide to come here at all, much less begin your journey here? Well, within the Netherlands in my Holy Grail: the World Database of Happiness (WDH). This facility houses an extensive collection of scientific data regarding the intricate and complicated relationship between human nature and happiness. Here, I discover that every country values happiness, but not necessarily in the same degree. Countries in East Asia think of happiness in terms of harmony and the ability to fulfill one's obligation to society. Perhaps this is why people residing in this area consistently report lower levels of happiness; thus the East Asian Happiness Gap makes perfect sense. The least blissful countries in the world are all African, and if not at the absolute bottom of the totem pole of happiness, they can only reach a lower-middle ranking- proving that both poverty and lack of necessities greatly effects one's happiness levels. The absolute lowest level of happiness (on a scale of one to ten) ever recorded in human history was the Dominican Republic in 1962 with an unbelievable 1.6. This is especially staggering considering the average level of happiness worldwide falls somewhere between a five and an eight. But I had had enough of unhappy; it was time to move on. I had constructed my road map to happiness from my observations at the WDH and was beyond ready to go.