Boston Is the Most Irish City in America

Photo by Alex Lau

While everybody likes to believe that they’re Irish on St. Patrick’s Day in most places, people in Boston aren’t pretending. According to a study from residential real estate site Trulia, our fair city is highly concentrated with Irish folks, so much so that “the percentage of people with primary Irish ancestry tops out at 20 percent in Boston’s metro area,” making us the number one most Irish metro in America.

Unsurprisingly, Middlesex County, Peabody, and Worcester are also in Trulia’s top 10 list along with several other upstate New York regions.

Trulia says that while five percent of populations in most American counties are Irish, more than 10 percent make up counties in New England and New York. You can see how that translates in this map below. There’s an intense difference between the Northeast and places like southern Texas.

Infographic via Trulia

For a more a specific visual, the map below shows that the most Irish neighborhoods are not actually in inner cities, but in the suburbs. In Trulia’s top 10 list of the most Irish-populated neighborhoods in the country, Walpole, South Weymouth, Abington, Marshfield, and North Weymouth are all included:

Infographic via Trulia

But there’s more! Trulia also looked into where Irish immigrants are searching for potential homes in America. Boston again tops this list, followed by places in the Northeast like Long Island (NY), Middlesex County (MA), Peabody (MA), Fairfield County (CT), Springfield (MA), and Providence (RI).

As Trulia says, “people from Ireland tend to search more for homes in places where more Irish-Americans live.”

Check out their interactive map of America’s most Irish towns at trulia.com.