The magic of childhood in the Netherlands

And what other countries can learn from it.

- Simon Kuper

When I close my eyes and think back to my childhood in the Netherlands, I am nine years old and a friend and I are cycling at top speed down our town's high street, re-enacting the finish of the Tour de France.

He pulls a metre ahead of me and raises both arms in triumph for the imaginary cameras. Lord knows where our parents were.

A recent United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) report repeats the organisation's usual finding that Dutch children are the happiest in the rich world.

Unicef ranks the Netherlands No. 1 for mental health and No. 4 for physical health, though only a modest 11th for "skills".

The country is a role model in an era when children internationally are becoming unhappier, more overweight and (academically at least) dumber. British kids report poor mental health, American kids have disastrous physical health, while Unicef's report is littered with shocking nuggets, such as New Zealand's youth suicide rate.

Given that mental health and obesity began worsening internationally in the early 1990s, Unicef doesn't think phones or social media are the prime culprit. "Screen time is not the most useful indicator," the report finds.