The top ten cities with Irish American population have been identified by census records as have the bottom ten. 

The Buffalo newspaper, the Business Journal did us all a favor by rating 52 cities in America by their Irish population.

There will be much surprise what city finishes in last place. No, it’s not Salt Lake City which I would have guessed, or Boise or some such place with little Irish activity.

Instead it is the city of angels, Los Angeles, where I would almost have bet more Irish percentage lived than in the majority of other major cities.

Second last is Miami, the heavily Hispanic ultra cool southern city. Again there are many, many Irish in Florida but not just in its major city.

As for first place there will be no surprise. Boston, the destination point of so many Famine immigrants comes first by a large margin from Philadelphia. A trip through Boston streets is like walking through Dublin every other face looks Irish.

WIth close to 38 million Irish Americans in the US many have shifted to the suburbs, but there are still many cities with a strong identifiable Irish presence.

Here is the full list:

STRONG IRISH HERITAGE

1. Boston 23.4%

2. Philadelphia, 20.0%

3. Pittsburgh, 18.8%

4. Providence, 18.7%

5. Buffalo, 17.2%

6. Rochester, 16.5%

7. Hartford, 16.0%

ABOVE-NORMAL IRISH HERITAGE

8. Cincinnati, 14.3%

9. Cleveland, 14.3%

10. Columbus, 14.2%

11. St. Louis, 13.8%

12. Kansas City, 13.3%

13. Baltimore, 13.2%

14. Louisville, 12.9%

NORMAL IRISH HERITAGE

15. Minneapolis-St. Paul, 11.8%

16. Indianapolis, 11.7%

17. Chicago, 11.6%

18. Denver, 11.6%

19. Portland, 11.6%

20. Tampa, 11.5%

21. Jacksonville, 11.3%

22. Nashville, 11.2%

23. Oklahoma City, 11.0%

24. Grand Rapids, 11.0%

25. Seattle, 10.7%

26. New York, 10.6%

27. Detroit, 10.2%

28. Milwaukee, 10.2%

29. Raleigh, 10.0%

30. Sacramento, 9.6%

31. Virginia Beach-Norfolk, 9.5%

32. Charlotte, 9.4%

33. Washington, 9.3%

34. Phoenix, 9.3%

35. Birmingham, 9.3%

BELOW-NORMAL IRISH HERITAGE

36. Austin, 8.7%

37. Orlando, 8.6%

38. Richmond, 8.6%

39. San Diego, 8.4%

40. Las Vegas, 8.2%

41. New Orleans, 8.2%

42. Dallas-Fort Worth, 8.1%

43. San Francisco, 7.9%

44. Atlanta, 7.5%

45. Memphis, 7.5%

WEAK IRISH HERITAGE

46. Riverside-San Bernardino, 6.1%

47. San Antonio, 6.1%

48. Houston, 6.0%

49. Salt Lake City, 6.0%

50. San Jose, 5.5%

51. Miami, 5.1%

52. Los Angeles, 4.8%