Well-being ‘here and now’: Subjective well-being
Subjective well-being concerns how satisfied people are with their own life. It concerns both life satisfaction as a whole, and satisfaction with specific aspects of life. It is also about positive and negative feelings that people experience and the extent to which they feel their life has purpose and meaning. Subjective well-being is, to a significant extent, determined by the extent to which people feel in control of their lives.
- People in the Netherlands experience a high level of satisfaction with their lives compared to other EU member states.
- Less than half of the population feel they have 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 | 84.9% of the population gave their life a score of 7 or more in 2025 | 1st out of 19 in 2023 | High ranking | |
| Subjective well-being | Feeling in control of own life | 47.9% feel in control (scores 4 or 5 on a scale of 1-5) in 2025 | 3rd out of 27 in 2017 | High ranking |
Colour codes and notes to the dashboards in the Monitor of Well-being
People in the Netherlands have a high level of life satisfaction. In 2025, 84.9 percent of the population (aged 18 and over) rated their life a 7 or higher. In 2023, the Netherlands recorded the highest level of life satisfaction in the EU. People in the Netherlands are also relatively satisfied with specific aspects of their lives, such as their home (86.5 percent) and living environment (85.3 percent), their work (79.2 percent), the amount of leisure time they have (73.9 percent), and their social life (79.9 percent). Information on perceived satisfaction can be found under the ‘Subjective assessment’ section of each individual SDG dashboard.
It should be noted, however, that the share of the population scoring their life with a 6 or lower includes more than two million people (15.1 percent of all adults). In 2025, 3 percent of the population was dissatisfied with life. Life satisfaction varies markedly by age, sex, level of education, country of birth and origin (Distribution of well-being: society).
Although life satisfaction is high, fewer than half of the population feel that they have a high degree of control over their own lives. In 2025, 47.9 percent of people in the Netherlands experienced a high level of control. With the exception of the years 2022 and 2023, this figure has been fairly constant since the first measurement in 2010. Work satisfaction is high (79.2 percent), but only 64 percent of employed people can regularly make their own decisions at work (SDG 8.2). In 2025, only 20.7 percent of adults felt that norms and values were either stable or moving in the right direction.