This past weekend, hundreds gathered in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day – a Catholic feast day for Ireland’s most well-known saint and an opportunity to celebrate all things Irish. Held annually on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day has become an opportunity for anyone to claim they are Irish (at least for the day). According to the American Community Survey data presented below, however, only 5.1 to 10 percent of the population in a majority of the communities in Southeast Michigan claimed Irish ancestry in 2011.

IrishSEMICH

Although Corktown once had a large Irish population base many people (exact numbers could not be found) from Ireland relocated to that part of Detroit during the Irish potato famine in the mid-1800s). Today though, the Irish population in Corktown has diminished and the entire City of Detroit itself does not have a particularly large Irish-ancestry population. According to the 2011 American Community Survey, those with Irish ancestry made up 5 percent or less of the city’s population in 2011.

As the map shows, in 2011, the percent of the population claiming Irish ancestry in a majority of the communities (insert number) in Southeast Michigan was between 5.1 and 10 percent. Fewer communities (12) had between 10.1 and 15 percent of the population make such claims, and even fewer (8) had over 15.1 percent.