Irish Canadians
The first waves of Irish immigrants took place between 1763 and 1880. when ten thousand Irish immigrants arrived on the Island. From 1800 to 1850, "10,000 immigrants from every county in Ireland" had settled in Prince Edward Island and represented 25% of the Island population by 1850.
Ireland
, a total of 34.5 million Americans claim Irish ancestry. Irish Americans today are predominantly Protestant, with a Catholic minority. In a 2014 poll, however, only half of the 40 million Americans who claimed Irish background (Scots-Irish, Anglo-Irish, Irish) self-identified as Irish Protestant (20 million), 13.3 million self-professed to be Irish Catholic, and the remainder (7.7 million) either did not answer or self-identified as nothing. The Protestants' ancestors (Scots-Irish from the north of Ireland) arrived primarily in the colonial era, while Catholics are primarily descended from immigrants of the 19th century. Irish leaders have been prominent in the Catholic Church in the United States for over 150 years while the Irish have been leaders in the Presbyterian and Methodist traditions as well. Surveys in the 1990s show that of Americans who identify themselves as "Irish", 51% said they were Protestant and 36% identified as Catholic; in the South, Protestants account for 73% of those claiming Irish origins, while Catholics account for only 19%. In the North, 45% of those claiming Irish origin are Catholic, while 39% are Protestant. Many African Americans and Native Americans claim Irish Protestant or Scots-Irish ancestry.