The Economic Impact of St. Patrick’s Day (2016)

St. Patrick’s Day is generally considered the one day of the year that drinkers must drink a beer. Irish beer to boot. All that rapid influx of beer buying and binge drinking comes with a rather large economic footprint.

The average forecast of the economic impact is measured much differently from source to source. Variables are based on expectations. They are also varied on what all gets included as St. Patrick’s Day spending. Most economic views do not include the increased cost of cabs and Uber cars being hailed for over-served drinkers.

The National Retail Federation has projected that Americans will spend $4.4 billion on St. Patrick’s Day in 2016. This may sound big, but it is a less than recent years. Some 125 million Americans are expected to be celebrating, with an average spend of $35.37 per person.

In 2015, total dollars spent was projected to be $4.6 billion, with an average of $36.52 per person. In 2014 the figure was $4.8 billion.

Again, sources vary on what will get spent and on other views.
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Statista shows that people consume about 7.5 million pints of Guinness globally on most days, but that rises to 13 million on St. Patrick’s Day — enough to fill 60% of the Empire State Building. Statista also shows that some 39.6 million people in the United States claim Irish heritage, which is almost seven times Ireland’s population.

The U.S. Census showed that over 33.1 million Americans claim Irish descent, again more than seven times the population of Ireland itself.

The largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the world is not in Dublin. New York City’s parade has been held each year going back to 1762. The second-largest St. Patrick’s Day parade is actually in Savannah, Ga. Chicago’s parade is not a top-ranked parade but is one of the better known ones because the city’s plumbers union pours roughly 50 pounds of vegetable-based powder to dye the river green.

Uber conducted a study with Mothers Against Drunk Driving that suggests nearly 300,000 people drive drunk every single day.

On a side note, one wonders if St. Patrick himself might approve or disapprove of the celebration. The day honors Bishop Patrick, who brought Christianity to Ireland in the fifth century and used the shamrock to illustrate divinity.