Subjective well-being
Subjective well-being concerns how satisfied people are with their own life. It is about life satisfaction as a whole as well as specific aspects of life. It is also about positive and negative feelings that people experience and the extent to which they feel their lives have purpose and meaning. Subjective well-being is strongly influenced by the extent to which people experience control over their lives.
- Compared with other EU countries, Dutch people experience high life satisfaction and a high degree of control over their own lives.
Subjective well-being
in EU
in 2023
in EU
in 2017
| Theme | Indicator | Value | Trend | Position in EU | Position in EU ranking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjective well-being | Satisfaction with life | 85.3% of the population gave their life a score of 7 or more in 2024 | 1st out of 19 in 2023 | High ranking | |
| Subjective well-being | Feeling in control of own life | 48.2% feel in control (scores 4 or 5 on a scale of 1-5) in 2024 | 3rd out of 27 in 2017 | High ranking |
Colour codes and notes to the dashboards in the Monitor of Well-being
Slightly less than half of the Dutch population (48.2 percent in 2024) feel they are largely in control of their own lives. Nevertheless, life satisfaction is generally high in the Netherlands. However, after peaking in 2019 (87.3 percent), fewer people say they are very satisfied with their life. In 2024, 85.3 percent of the population rated their life with a score of 7 or over. The Netherlands occupies a high position within the EU rankings for both indicators of subjective well-being, although the international figures for perceived control are not very recent (2017). Life satisfaction does differ if we take age, sex, educational level, country of birth and origin into account, see Distribution of well-being among population groups.
In addition, a relatively high proportion of people trust other people and institutions compared with other EU countries (SDG 10.1 Social cohesion and inequality). Information on satisfaction and trust indicators can be found in the ‘Subjective assessment’ category of the Sustainable Development Goals dashboards.