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The Numbers Behind St. Patrick's Day In The United States [Infographic]

This article is more than 9 years old.

St. Patrick's Day isn't just a huge event on the Emerald Isle. In fact, no one embraces the holiday quite like the United States where a whopping 127 million Americans will celebrate their inner-Irishness this year. 82 percent of them will wear green and the average person will end up spending just under $40 during the festivities, an increase on last year's $35.

All in all, Americans are expected to spend $4.63 billion on St. Patrick's Day this year, up from $3.64 billion back in 2008. Of course, beer always flows on March 17th and nearly a quarter of a billion dollars will be splashed out on it this year. Across the world, 5.5 million pints of Guinness are consumed on an average day. On St. Patrick's Day, this rises to 13 million - enough to fill 60 percent of the Empire State Building!

Across the United States, about 39.6 million people claim Irish heritage - almost 7 times Ireland's population.

*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)