How happy a person feels is influenced by both internal and external factors, as a recent report from the personal finance website WalletHub points out.

People can gain satisfaction by approaching situations positively and engaging with loved ones and in enjoyable activities. However, things beyond their control, such as high cost of living, can undermine good feelings.

The report suggests that the state in which one lives can also play a role in happiness. “In addition to pursuing your passions, having a good work-life balance and maintaining an emotional support network, another key way to boost your happiness is living in the right place,” WalletHub analyst Chris Lupo said in a statement.

“The happiest states are those that provide above-average quality of life in a wide variety of areas, from strong state economies and high quality physical and mental health care to adequate amounts of leisure time and good weather.”

In order to determine where Americans exhibit the best combination of good economic, emotional, physical and social health, WalletHub compared the 50 states across these key dimensions:

  • Physical and emotional well-being (50 points), including life expectancy, career well-being, share of adult depression and suicide rate
  • Work environment (25 points), including number of work hours, economic security and share of households earning annual incomes above $75,000 and a social media-based indicator of work stress
  • Community and environment (25 points), including ideal weather, average leisure time spent per day, safety, and separation and divorce rate

Researchers evaluated those dimensions using 30 relevant metrics, and graded each one on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing maximum happiness.

The research drew on the findings of the following works, each of which indicated a correlation between WalletHub’s data and happiness, the website said:

  • Happy People Live Longer: Subjective Well-Being Contributes to Health and Longevity (Chan and Diener, 2010)
  • Happiness from Ordinary and Extraordinary Experiences (Bhattacharjee and Mogilner, 2014)
  • Sports Participation and Happiness: Evidence from U.S. Micro Data (Huang and Humphreys, 2010)
  • Unhappy Cities (Glaeser, et al., 2014)

See the gallery for the 12 happiest states in America, according to WalletHub.

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