Massachusetts rules list of Irish towns

Six of the 10 cities in our list of most Irish towns are in Massachusetts, and all of them are in the Northeast. America's number-one Irish place is the Boston suburb of Milton, where 38 percent of residents are Irish.

We analyzed 2000 census data, looking at communities with populations of 5,000 or more, to find those with the greatest proportions of people reporting Irish ancestry. (We released a similar list in 2001, before the 2000 ancestry data was available from the U.S. Census Bureau.)

The top 10 list appears below, and top Irish towns by state are listed at right.

Milton, MA	38%
Pearl River, NY	38%
Braintree, MA	36%
Collingdale, PA	35%
Marshfield, MA	35%
Scituate, MA	35%
Gloucester City, NJ	34%
Drexel Hill, PA	34%
Pembroke, MA	34%
Weymouth, MA	33%

March, 2005
Sources: ePodunk, U.S. Census Bureau Other rankings and top 10 lists