Massive ‘God Gap’ between liberal, conservative students
Is the most significant divide in the religious behavior of American college students not between elite and non-elite institutions, but between political ideologies?
That’s the finding of a new survey from statistician and professor Ryaan Burge, who analyzed data from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and found it challenged common perceptions about the disparities in U.S. higher education, particularly at two of the nation’s most prestigious institutions: Harvard and Yale.
Comparing the religious makeup of Harvard and Yale to Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (SIU-E), a regional institution, Burge found just 25% of the student body identified as Protestant, compared to 38% at SIU-E. He attributed the difference at least in part to a larger Catholic presence at Harvard and Yale compared to SIU-E, along with “there being a whole lot more Jews, Hindus and Muslims at Harvard.”
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Even so, Burge said he was surprised by the similarity in non-religious students, observing that the percentage of the student body at Harvard and Yale who identified as atheist or agnostic was 28% — the exact same share of students attending SIU-E.
Additionally, the percentage who claimed no religion in particular was almost exactly the same in both groups (17% vs. 15%).
“It’s pretty noteworthy that there aren’t more nones at elite Ivy league institutions,” Burge commented.
Similarly, Burge’s broader analysis of selective versus non-selective schools — those schools with an acceptance rate either above or below 30% — revealed minimal religious differences overall: Protestant and Catholic shares were almost exactly the same, as well as Mormons, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists.” The exceptions were higher percentages of students identifying as “Christian” (21% at non-selective vs. 11% at selective) and Jews (7% at selective vs. 3% at non-selective).
“I think the overwhelming sense I get from this graph is how small the differences are between these two types of institutions,” he wrote.
About 60% of college students attend religious services no more than twice a year, with one in 10 attending at least once a week, according to the survey. However, when examining political ideology, Burge uncovered what he labeled a “God Gap,” a massive statistical disparity between liberals and conservatives with regard to attending religious services.
“A liberal college student is thirty points more likely to be a never attender than a conservative one. Among conservative college students, 32% attend weekly compared to 8% of liberal college students,” he wrote. “That’s how big the God Gap is — about 400% on college campuses.”
The data, according to Burge, also indicated nearly 60% of liberal students identify as atheist, agnostic or a religious “none” and that a liberal college student is “three times more likely to be non-religious than a conservative one.”
“Let that roll around your brain for a minute,” he added.
Burge also critiqued the financial disparities between elite and regional schools, expressing frustration with donations to Harvard’s endowment. “What really grinds my gears about Harvard (and others in that stratosphere) is that rich people still write checks to their endowment. Malcolm Gladwell did a podcast episode on this phenomenon and titled it, ‘My Little Hundred Million.’ If you write a nine figure check to Harvard, they just throw it on the pile.”
He highlighted Harvard’s “ocean of money” endowment, which topped over $53 billion in 2024 and has grown by at least $10 billion since 2021, noting, “The Wall Street Journal described Harvard as ‘a hedge fund that has a university,’ back in 2017.”
