Celebrated on March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day is synonymous with lively parades, an ocean of green attire, and the indulgence of Irish-themed food and drinks.
To guide your 2024 celebrations, we’ve traversed the U.S. to rank 100 major cities based on their St. Patrick’s Day spirit, measured through four key metrics: local enthusiasm for the holiday, the number of events and parades, the prevalence of Irish heritage, and, of course, the abundance of Irish pubs.
Whether you boast a lineage straight from the Emerald Isle or simply seek to immerse yourself in the day’s jubilant traditions, this article is your treasure map to the best celebrations.
Key Takeaways
- The best cities for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in the U.S. are Boston, New York, and Chicago.
- New Orleans has the most St. Patrick’s Day enthusiasm, with an average of 420 searches per capita in March.
- Chicago has the most St. Patrick’s Day events and parades (93).
- Boston has the largest Irish heritage population, with 19.4% of its residents being of Irish descent.
- New York City has the most Irish pubs on Yelp (107).
- 6 Florida cities rank among the best to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day – Tampa (20th), St. Petersburgh (38th), Jacksonville (40th), Orlando (41st), Port St. Lucie (57th), and Miami (62nd).
- Tampa ranks 7th for the most amount of Irish pubs.
- Tampa also came in 19th for St. Patrick’s Day enthusiasm, with Miami (22nd) and Orlando (23rd) following close behind.
Best U.S. Cities for St. Patrick’s Day
The interactive table below presents the best cities for St. Patrick’s Day revelry in the U.S. We’ve ranked 100 major cities from best to worst (1-100) based on the following categories:
- Local enthusiasm (based on each city’s average search volume per capita for “St. Patrick’s Day parade” and “St. Patrick’s Day celebration” in March over the past 4 years)
- Number of related events (found on Google)
- Irish heritage (based on population percentage with Irish ancestry)
- Irish pub counts (based on Yelp listings).
- The best cities to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the U.S. are Boston, New York, and Chicago.
- The worst cities for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day are El Paso, TX; Corpus Christi, TX; and Stockton, CA.
Below is a quick breakdown of the top 3 cities for each of the variables in our study:
- New Orleans has the most St. Patrick’s Day enthusiasm, with 420 searches per capita on average during March, followed by Buffalo, NY, and Boston.
- Chicago has the most St. Patrick’s Day events and parades (93), while New York ranks second with 39 and Boston is third with 37.
- 19.4% of Boston’s population is of Irish descent, the most of all cities studied. Two cities in Pennsylvania have the next highest percentages of Irish heritage: Pittsburgh (16.6%) and Philadelphia (16.4%).
- New York is the city with the most Irish pubs on Yelp (107).
Methodology
We created a unique meta-ranking using the following four metrics to determine the best city out of 100 major cities to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the U.S.. Some variables had ties. The final scores were scaled by 1.5.
- St. Patrick’s Day Enthusiasm (25%): based on average Google Trends search volume per capita during March 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020 for “St. Patrick’s Day parade” and “St. Patrick’s Day celebration.”
- Number of St. Patrick’s Day events and parades (25%): as found on Google Events in February 2024. (Note: subject to change if more events are added.)
- Irish Heritage (25%): based on 2022 U.S. Census data of the percentage of Irish ancestry for each city. We used data from the closest metro area if a city had no data.
- Number of Irish pubs per city (25%): as found on the Yelp Fusion API.
Source: Celtic Titles
