Houston, August 27, 2025
ocf.net
A new report from the Orthodox Studies Institute has found that Orthodox Christian students represent 1.37% of the American college population, significantly higher than the 0.49% estimated for the general U.S. population. The study, authored by Matthew Namee, Dn. Seraphim Richard Rohlin, and Dr. Christopher Krampe, analyzed data from a large-scale survey conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
The FIRE survey included 58,807 student respondents from 257 colleges and universities, surveyed between January 25 and June 17, 2024. Of these respondents, 807 identified themselves as Orthodox Christian. The findings were corroborated by a separate UCLA Higher Education Research Institute survey, which found 1.1% of its 2024 respondents were Eastern Orthodox, and by the 2024 Cooperative Election Study, which showed 1.0% of respondents aged 18-24 were Orthodox.
Based on approximately 16 million undergraduate students enrolled in U.S. colleges, the researchers estimate that around 200,000 Orthodox students are currently in American universities, though this number would include some non-Chalcedonian Christians.
Racial demographics surprise researchers
The racial composition of Orthodox college students differed markedly from broader Orthodox demographics. Only 45% of Orthodox student respondents identified as white, compared to approximately 80% in Pew and CES studies of the general Orthodox population. Black students comprised 11.5% of Orthodox respondents, relatively consistent with other surveys.
Middle Eastern students represented 9.8% of Orthodox college students, compared to just 3.8% in the CES general population survey. The report notes that older generations of Middle Eastern Orthodox may be more likely to identify as white compared to college students.
Hispanic/Latino students made up 9.2% and Asian students 10.7% of Orthodox college respondents, substantially higher than the 2-3% found in general population surveys. Additionally, 9.4% of Orthodox college students identified as two or more races.
Gender and sexuality statistics
Among Orthodox students surveyed, 35% were male and 55% female, with 9.6% selecting other options. This mirrors the broader college gender distribution, where women significantly outnumber men.
Regarding sexual orientation, 79.2% of Orthodox students identified as straight/heterosexual, higher than the 70% average for all students in the survey. This aligned with patterns seen in other Christian groups.
Political views show gender divide
Orthodox college students showed relatively balanced political views overall, with 35.3% identifying as liberal-leaning and 32.7% as conservative-leaning. However, a significant gender gap emerged: 44.7% of male Orthodox students identified as conservative versus 20.9% as liberal, while Orthodox women showed nearly opposite proportions at 42.8% liberal and 26.0% conservative.
Church attendance comparable to older Orthodox adults
The study found that 45% of Orthodox college students reported attending church at least once a month, comparable to 42% for Catholic students. Weekly attendance was reported by 11.4% of Orthodox students, with another 9.6% attending “about weekly.”
These figures align closely with church attendance reported by Orthodox adults in other surveys—38% monthly attendance in the 2024 Pew study and 48% in CES. About 12% of Orthodox college students reported never attending church, similar to the 9% in Pew and 13% in CES surveys.
The report noted differences in attendance by race, with 30.7% of non-white Orthodox students attending weekly or more, compared to 21.2% of white Orthodox students. Additionally, 88% of Orthodox students who attend church weekly identified as heterosexual, compared to 75% of those attending several times a year or less.
Top universities for Orthodox students
The universities with the highest percentages of Orthodox students in the FIRE survey were:
- University of California-Irvine
- Rutgers University—New Brunswick
- Temple University
- Iowa State University
- Stevens Institute of Technology
- Drexel University
- University of Wisconsin—Madison
- North Carolina State University at Raleigh
- Cornell University
- Northeastern University
The report concluded that while only 43% of college students in the survey identified as Christian overall (compared to 62% of Americans in Pew surveys), Orthodox Christianity appears to be “significantly bucking the trend” seen in other Christian groups, maintaining a stronger presence on college campuses relative to its size in the general population.
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