What Each State Is Searching for on St. Patrick's Day

On March 17, Irish people (and honorary ones) around the globe celebrate their patron saint, Saint Patrick, and the motherland’s cultural heritage. In America, some pay homage to the holiday’s Gaelic roots by wearing green, attending parades, and eating foods like corned beef and cabbage, shepherd’s pie, and soda bread. But according to Google search figures, lots of people in the U.S. simply use the day as an excuse to (surprise!) party and watch sports.

To find out how various regions honored St. Paddy’s Day last year, analysts at website HighSpeedInternet.com mined Google Trends, sifted search terms by state, crunched the numbers, and produced the map below. Not shockingly, the most popular keywords in 18 states across the nation were alcohol-related, including terms like “Irish car bomb,” “pub crawl,” and “green beer.” Coming in second were food-related phrases like “bangers and mash,” “how to cook cabbage,” and “Shamrock Shake.” And since NCAA March Madness was in full swing last year, states across the Midwest and South were Googling sports-related terms like “CBS Sports,” “2016 Bracket,” and various university basketball teams. Meanwhile, residents in Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, and Tennessee simply wanted to learn more about Irish culture; the most common search query in these states was “Irish people.”

Click on the map below to view the full results:

Click to enlarge