The 2020 U.S. Census results are out and the Irish of America are all about the place. Over the years, and certainly since the landmark 1980 census take, the size of Irish America, based on census results, has expanded and contracted like an accordion.
The high water mark was 44 million. In intervening decades that number fell back into the lows 30s and mid 30s. This led to considerable brow furrowing and concern being expressed as to why Irish America seemed to be on the wane.
The 44 million high water mark was a result of 1980 census forms that allowed for a significant degree of choice when it came to ethnic or racial self-identification. The number was reached by combining responses from Americans who considered their ancestry to be either “Irish” or “Scots-Irish.” The “Irish” total was 39 million, with the “Scots-Irish” pulling the number up to 44 million.
The 1990 Census was so generous with its questions that it even allowed for responders to fill in a separate category for being simply Scottish American, with no Irish ingredient at all. There were over five million respondents in that category.
The 2000 census, which was drawn from information supplied by respondents in answer to both short and long forms, did not ask the kind of detailed questions regarding ethnicity as the previous two census tallies. However, one trend did emerge strongly from the 2000 calculations. More people were inclined to simply call themselves “American.”
The effect of this was an apparent reduction in the number of people citing ties, not just to Ireland, but also to Germany, England and other high number total countries. So the 44 million were still out there. But many of them were in apparent hiding.
The 2010 Census resulted in a tally released by the Census Bureau amounting to 34.7 million Irish. Still impressive, but yet another example of the roller coaster ride for the estimate of America’s Irish.
So on to 2020. There was tick box allowing respondents to declare their Irishness. Crucially, though, respondents were allowed to fill more than one box if they so chose.
This was the case in 1980 and 1990, when Irishness came in frequently as a first preference - even when respondents were able to add in other ethnic backgrounds.
The 2020 results do not take the number back to 44 million but the Irish, when tallied in the category "White Alone or in Any Combination Groups," are almost at the 39 million mark - 38,597,428 to be precise. This is a significant jump over 2010.
Top of the 2020 category is English at 46,550,968 with German in second place at 44,978,546. Italians come in fourth with a little under 17 million followed by Poles at about 8.5 million. "Scots" come in at 8.4 million and are followed by French, Swedish and Norwegian.
Interestingly, there is a category for Scots Irish and this gives us just under 800,000. There is a category for "British" which delivers about 860,000.
The manner in which questions are asked, and the range of categories on offer in a census, can have a bearing on the answers given. The bottom line is that Irish America and its added Scots Irish is still an impressive portion of America in all its splendid diversity.
