Happy workers are more productive workers. But what makes a person happy? A recent analysis from WalletHub pulled together various environmental factors related to overall well-being and satisfaction to determine which states are happiest. WalletHub complied its rankings based on three dimensions: emotional and physical well-being, work environment and community environment. Each of those characteristics was further comprised of more-detailed metrics which were weighted to calculate an overall score. Related: 6 key factors of workplace happiness Overall well-being factors comprised half of the score, while work environment and community each contributed a quarter. Colorado, for example, topped the list for sports participation but came in 18th overall. North Dakota boasts both the lowest long-term unemployment rate and highest income growth, two factors to its fourth-place ranking. Utah, Idaho and Colorado earned the top three spots for work environment rank, though poor well-being kept the latter two out of the top 5. Whether we like to admit it, money is a key element in gauging happiness. "Research shows that subjective happiness increases with income up until a point, somewhere between $75,000 and $100,000," says Amanda Watson Joyce, assistant professor of psychology at Murray State University. "Less than that, and financial stressors tend to decrease happiness, but more than that and people tend to begin to lose the ability to savor everyday pleasures." And how can the work environment affect happiness? Joyce notes several criteria, including whether employees feel respected and have a voice in company decisions, their opinions of the company leaders and their perception of growth opportunities. "Even things like humor matter," Joyce adds. "Recently, some colleagues and I did research that showed that people are more satisfied with and committed to their work when they can use humor with their peers and when this humor is supported by their supervisors. In other words, people like their jobs more when they're allowed to, and encouraged to, joke around with one another."