Katie Couric's Notebook: Happy States

A new study adds scientific weight to what Boca-bound retirees already seem to know…people in those sunshine-y states are happier than the rest of us.

Using reports from more than a million Americans, researchers from Hamilton College in New York and the University of Warwick in England ranked each state based on the mood of its inhabitants.

So which one topped the list? Louisiana…though the authors caution that some of the data was gathered before Hurricane Katrina.

And down at the bottom? New York. Ironically, New York's popularity has made it more crowded, expensive and polluted than other states. And that means lower happiness scores.

So even if you can "make it here," as Sinatra sang, you might not want to…New Orleans, here we come!

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.