Irish Green, Irish Wealth

Posted on March 17th, 2011

Kristen Hagopian, writing in philly2philly.com, reminded me about the large number of millionaire households in America with Irish ancestry.  She cites the "top ten ancestry groups of American millionaires" as given in The Millionaire Next Door. 

. . .over 400,000 [as of 1996]American households with Irish ancestry had attained millionaire status.  Pretty impressive.

Ms. Hagopian believes that:

 one of the proven strategies used to create their lofty economic position: the extreme frugality of first and second generation immigrants. 

The Irish overall comprise the third largest ancestry group in America. Therefore it is not surprising that there would be many in the millionaire category. This is the nominal definition of millionaire including equity in the home.  

Today there are over 900,000 millionaire households that trace their roots back to the Emerald Isle. Yes, America has been and continues to be a great place to plant seeds, but the longer an immigrant group has been socialized in the ways and means of this culture, the more income statement/consumption oriented it becomes. 

The more recent immigrant groups, such as South Africans,  Israelis, Asian Indians, Pakistanis, Indonesians and Taiwanese to name a few, have a significantly higher concentration of millionaire households than even the Irish.  But over time their children and grandchildren will become the ultimate consumers too!

 

Category: Studying the Wealthy
Tags: philly2philly.com, Kristen Hagopian, The Millionaire Next Door, Irish Americans,