Actual finance blog

St. Patrick's Day carries extra importance in Boston, Mass., the U.S. metropolitan area with the highest percentage of people who claim Irish ancestry.

Almost 19 percent of the people in Boston and its suburbs consider themselves to be of Irish descent, according to 2007 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Only eight other metros — including Buffalo — are at least 10 percent Irish. Buffalo ranks eighth nationally at 11.2 percent, with 126,660 residents of Erie and Niagara counties listing Irish as their primary ancestry.

Irish-Americans constitute the second-largest ancestral group in the United States. A total of 22.6 million Americans claim Irish as their primary ancestry, equaling 7.5 percent of the 2007 national population of 301.6 million.

German-Americans, at 11.8 percent, form the only ancestral group that is larger.

The Census Bureau has generated ancestry data for 46 metropolitan areas. They’re ranked below, based on the percentage of residents who listed Irish as their primary ancestral group in 2007:

• 1. Boston, 18.87 percent
• 2. Albany, 15.92 percent
• 3. Philadelphia, 14.60 percent
• 4. Providence, 12.23 percent
• 5. Bridgeport-Stamford, Conn., 11.69 percent
• 6. New Haven, Conn., 11.56 percent
• 7. Hartford, 11.45 percent
• 8. Buffalo, 11.23 percent
• 9. Pittsburgh, 10.74 percent
• 10. Rochester, N.Y., 9.86 percent
• 11. Kansas City, 9.66 percent
• 12. Tampa-St. Petersburg, 9.65 percent
• 13 free credit score online. Cleveland, 9.43 percent
• 14. Baltimore, 9.14 percent
• 15. Cincinnati, 9.05 percent
• 16. St. Louis, 8.73 percent
• 17. Indianapolis, 8.61 percent
• 18. Columbus, 8.59 percent
• 19. Jacksonville, 8.50 percent
• 20. Chicago, 8.19 percent
• 21. Nashville, 8.04 percent
• 22. Portland, Ore., 7.67 percent
• 23. New York City, 7.64 percent
• 24. Denver, 7.41 percent
• 25. Seattle, 7.41 percent
• 26. Minneapolis-St. Paul, 7.14 percent
• 27. Washington, 6.84 percent
• 28. Sacramento, 6.74 percent
• 29. Detroit, 6.70 percent
• 30. Richmond, 6.51 percent
• 31. Virginia Beach-Norfolk, 6.37 percent
• 32. Phoenix, 6.28 percent
• 33. Charlotte, 6.26 percent
• 34. Orlando, 6.22 percent
• 35. Austin, 6.02 percent
• 36. San Diego, 5.97 percent
• 37. Las Vegas, 5.87 percent
• 38. Milwaukee, 5.84 percent
• 39. Atlanta, 5.60 percent
• 40. Dallas-Fort Worth, 5.49 percent
• 41. San Francisco-Oakland, 5.42 percent
• 42. Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., 4.53 percent
• 43. Houston, 4.20 percent
• 44. Miami-Fort Lauderdale, 3.93 percent
• 45. San Jose, 3.39 percent
• 46. Los Angeles, 3.27 percent

Source