LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Millions of Americans – some Irish, some not – will take part in St. Patrick’s Day celebrations across the United States on Friday.

Congress proclaimed March as Irish-American Heritage Month in 1991, and the president issues a proclamation commemorating the occasion each year.

Originally it was a religious holiday to honor St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland who introduced Christianity to Emerald Isle in the fifth century. He died on March 17 around 460 AD.

St. Patrick’s Day has evolved over the centuries into a celebration of all things Irish.

The world’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade occurred on March 17, 1762, in New York City, featuring Irish soldiers serving in the English military. This parade became an annual event, with President Truman attending in 1948, according to a report from the US Census Bureau.

According to the US Census Bureau’s 2015 American Community Survey 32.7 million or 10.2 percent of the United States population claimed Irish ancestry. That’s more than seven times the population of Ireland itself, which is 4.6 million.

That year the Census Bureau was estimated that 20,590 U.S. residents spoke Irish Gaelic.

Irish was the nation’s second-most frequently reported European ancestry, trailing German, the Census Bureau said.

Similarly, the 2015 American Community Survey showed that in Lake County, which that year had a total population of 64,591, German was the No. 1 ancestry group cited, at 7,074 residents, followed by Irish with 6,624 people.

Thanks to the interest in finding out more about Irish ancestors, there are many online resources for conducting genealogical searches, including www.ireland.com and www.irishgenealogy.ie .

The National Archives Web site, www.archives.gov/research/immigration/ , offers immigration records, with Irish ship passenger data available at http://aad.archives.gov/aad/fielded-search.jsp?dt=180&;cat=SB302&tf=F&bc=sb,sl .

Other Irish-related facts reported by the US Census Bureau:

– There are 15 places – incorporated places and census designated places – or county subdivisions in the United States that share the name of Ireland’s capital, Dublin. The most populous of these places in 2015 was Dublin, Calif., at 57,721.

– The number of foreign-born people in 2015 who reported Ireland as their birthplace totaled 120,144.

– The value of goods imported from Ireland in 2015 was $39 billion. Of that, the highest commodity category was pharmaceuticals and medicines at $25 billion.

– The value of U.S. imports of cabbage in 2015 totaled $133 million. Cabbage is a well-known culinary tradition in St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

– The number of pounds of U.S. beef and cabbage production totaled 23.7 billion and 2.2 billion, respectively, in 2015. Corned beef and cabbage is a staple at St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.