St Patricks Day in America

St Patricks Day is not an official holiday in America,
but it's certainly one of the most festive days of the year.

There are millions of Irish-Americans and the rest want to be on St Patricks Day.

Combine the large number of Americans with Irish ancestry and the tendency of Americans to go all out anytime they have an excuse to party and celebrate and what do you have?

It is one of the most celebrated holidays in America. Greeting card companies, companies that make holiday decorations, and pubs have a huge spike in business around March 17 every year.

When Congress declared March "Irish-American Heritage Month" in 1995, the U.S. Census published a "Facts for Features" entitled "Irish-American Heritage Month (March) and St Patricks Day (March 17)". They update statistics and re-publish the report regularly. What follows is the most recent version.

Irish-American Heritage Month (March)
and St Patricks Day (March 17) 2006

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Facts for Features Special Editions

Although not an "official" holiday in the United States, St Patricks Day has a long history of being celebrated with parades and general goodwill for all things Irish. The day commemorates St Patrick, who introduced Christianity to Ireland in the fifth century. Because many Americans celebrate their Irish lineage on St Patricks Day, March was picked as Irish-American Heritage Month. The month was first proclaimed in 1995 by Congress. The U.S. president also issues an Irish-American Heritage Month proclamation.

Population Distribution

34.5 million
Number of U.S. residents who claim Irish ancestry. This number is almost nine times the population of Ireland itself (4.1 million). Irish is the nation's second most frequently reported ancestry, trailing only those of German ancestry. (The ancestry estimates exclude people living in group quarters.)
Source: American FactFinder and Population and Migration Estimates, April 2005, Ireland's Central Statistics Office

24%
Percentage of Massachusetts residents of Irish ancestry - about double the national percentage. (The estimate of people of Irish ancestry excludes people living in group quarters.)
Source: American FactFinder

3
Number of states in which Irish is the leading ancestry group: Delaware, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Irish is among the top five ancestries in every state but two (Hawaii and New Mexico).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau News Release, June 30, 2004

54
Number of counties where Irish is the largest observed ancestry group. Forty-four of these counties are in the Northeast, with 14 in New York, 11 in Massachusetts and five in New Jersey. (The number of people of Irish ancestry in a county may not be significantly different from the number of people of other ancestries in the county.)
Source: unpublished data

348,978
Number of Middlesex County, Mass., residents who are of Irish ancestry. Among the 54 counties where Irish is the largest observed ancestry group, Middlesex had the highest population of Irish-Americans, with Norfolk County, Mass., second, with 203,285.
Source: unpublished data

31%
Percentage of the population of Plymouth County, Mass., and Norfolk County, Mass., that is of Irish ancestry. Among the 54 counties where Irish is the largest observed ancestry group, these two counties had the highest rate. Source: unpublished data

The Mother Tongue

25,870
The number of U.S. residents who speak Irish Gaelic at home.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau: Language Use

Coming to America

128,000
Number of U.S. residents born in Ireland. (The estimate excludes people living in group quarters.)
Source: American FactFinder

4.8 million
Total number of immigrants from Ireland lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence since fiscal year 1820, the earliest year for which official immigration records exist. By fiscal year 1870, about half of these immigrants were admitted for lawful permanent residence. Only Germany, Mexico, Italy and the United Kingdom have had more immigrants admitted for permanent residence to the United States than Ireland.
Source: Department of Homeland Security, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2004

1518
Total number of immigrants from Ireland lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence in the 2004 fiscal year.
Source: Department of Homeland Security, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2004. See Table 2.

Trade With the "Old Sod"

$24.0 billion
The value of U.S. imports from the Republic of Ireland during a recent 10-month period (January-October 2005). Meanwhile, the United States exported $7.5 billion worth of goods to Ireland.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau: Foreign Trade Statistics

Places to Spend the Day

4
Number of places in the United States named Shamrock, the floral emblem of Ireland. Mount Gay-Shamrock, W.Va., and Shamrock, Texas, were the most populous, with 2,623 and 1,821 residents, respectively. Shamrock Lakes, Ind., had 162 residents and Shamrock, Okla., 126. (Statistic for Mount Gay-Shamrock is from Census 2000; the other statistics in this paragraph are 2004 estimates.)
Source: American FactFinder andU.S. Census Bureau News Release: June 30, 2005

9
Number of places in the United States that share the name of Ireland's capital, Dublin. Since Census 2000, Dublin, Calif., has surpassed Dublin, Ohio, as the most populous of these places (36,995 compared with 34,301, respectively, as of July 1, 2004.
Source: American FactFinder and U.S. Census Bureau News Release: June 30, 2005

If you're still not into the spirit of St Patricks Day after stopping by one of the places named "Shamrock" or "Dublin," then you might consider paying a visit to Emerald Isle, N.C., with 3,648 residents, of which a ratio of 1-in-6 are of Irish descent.
Source: American FactFinder andU.S. Census Bureau News Release: June 24, 2004

The Celebration

41.5 billion & 2.5 billion
U.S. beef and cabbage production, respectively, in pounds, in 2004. Corned beef and cabbage is a traditional St Patricks Day dish. The corned beef celebrants dine on may very well have originated in Texas, which produced 7.3 billion pounds worth of beef, while the cabbage most likely came from California, which produced 558 million pounds worth.
Source: http://www.nass.usda.gov/index.asp

21.6
The number of gallons of beer consumed per capita by Americans annually in 2003. On St Patricks Day, you may be able to order green-dyed beer at one of the nation's 48,050 drinking places, some of which may be Irish pubs.
Source: Table 201, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2006 and U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2003

389
Number of breweries in 2003. The nation's breweries are the source for the domestic beer that is often an integral part of St Patricks Day celebrations.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2003

$75 million
Value of potted florist chrysanthemum sales at wholesale in 2004. Lime green chrysanthemums are often requested for St Patricks Day celebrations.
Source: http://www.nass.usda.gov/index.asp

8 million
Number of St Patricks Day cards Americans exchanged last year, making this observance the ninth-largest card-sending occasion in the United States.
Source: Hallmark research.

93.3 million
Number of people who reportedly planned to wear green last St Patricks Day.
Source: National Retail Federation, via Hallmark.

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St Patricks Day: In Ireland, America, and the world

Saint Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland