On this St. Patrick’s Day, the Indiana Business Research Center offers a few statistics on Irish roots in the Hoosier State:
- About 36.3 million U.S. residents claimed Irish ancestry in 2008. This number is more than eight times the population of Ireland (4.4 million). The Irish ancestry is the nation’s second most frequently reported ancestry behind German.
- Nearly 13 percent of all Hoosiers, 826,456 people, claimed an Irish ancestry in 2008. Massachusetts has the largest share of Irish ancestry (24 percent). The national average is 12 percent.
- There were 1,937 Irish-born Indiana residents in 2008, which is less than 1 percent of all the population who claimed an Irish ancestry. The majority of these residents entered the United States before 1990 (71.9 percent).
Be sure to celebrate thoroughly and safely.