The Netherlands has claimed first place in Numbeo's Quality of Life Index for 2026, overtaking Denmark and Luxembourg to lead the global rankings for the first time since 2023. With a score of 213.6, the country narrowly edges out Denmark (212.2) and Luxembourg (211.9) in what is a tightly clustered top three dominated by European nations.
Strong performance across indicators
Numbeo's index aggregates data across eight categories: purchasing power, safety, healthcare, cost of living, property price-to-income ratio, commute times, pollution, and climate. The Netherlands performs strongly across most measures, recording a Safety Index of 74.5, a Health Care Index of 81.5, and a notably low Pollution Index of 20.9.
The ranking places larger economies significantly lower. The United States comes in at 15th, while the United Kingdom ranks 22nd. The bottom of the 89-country list includes Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nigeria.
Dutch cities dominate
The Netherlands' top ranking is reinforced by its performance in Numbeo's city-level analysis, where Dutch cities claim five of the top five positions globally.
The Hague leads the world with a score of 230.1, followed by Utrecht (221.6), Eindhoven (219.4), Groningen (216.1), and Rotterdam (213.1). Amsterdam, despite its international profile, ranks eighth globally with 209.4, weighed down by higher living costs and property prices.
The Hague's top position reflects its strong scores for safety, healthcare access, and lower cost of living compared to Amsterdam. Home to the royal family, the International Court of Justice, and the Dutch parliament, the city combines administrative importance with relative affordability.
Cost of living the main weakness
The Netherlands' Achilles heel remains its cost of living, which Numbeo calculates at 8.6% higher than the United States. According to the platform's data, a family of four faces estimated monthly costs of €3,647 excluding rent, while a single person spends approximately €1,020 before housing costs.
Despite the ongoing housing crisis dominating Dutch political debate, the country performs reasonably well on property affordability in international comparison, ranking 14th globally with a property price-to-income ratio of 7.59. This means buying a home costs on average 7.59 times annual income, far better than Nigeria's ratio of 93.7.
Methodology note
Numbeo's rankings are based on user-contributed, perception-based data aggregated into composite scores. The platform describes itself as the world's largest cost-of-living database, collecting crowd-sourced information on various aspects of life in different cities and countries. As with all such indices, results reflect the specific methodology and data sources used.
Other quality-of-life rankings, including the U.S. News Best Countries Report and the United Nations Human Development Index, use different methodologies but consistently place the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Switzerland among the top performers globally.
