Harvard freshmen are overwhelmingly liberal
Only 12.2 percent identify as "somewhat" or "very conservative."
Over 65 percent of the school's incoming freshmen identify as either "somewhat" or "very liberal."
Harvard’s freshman class contains five times as many liberals as conservatives, according to a survey by the Harvard Crimson.
More than 65 percent of Harvard’s class of 2019 identifies as either somewhat or very liberal, compared to just 12.2 percent who identify as somewhat or very conservative.
The disparity is even greater between the numbers of “very liberal” and “very conservative”: a hair under 28 percent of the newest Harvard students identify as “very liberal,” almost fourteen times as students who identify as “very conservative”—a mere two percent of the class.
The enormous disparity between liberals and conservatives at Harvard stands in stark contrast to the rest of the country—according to a 2014 Gallup poll, liberals represent the ideological minority nationwide at just 24 percent, significantly less than conservatives, who make up 38 percent of the country.
The gulf between conservatives and liberals in the class of 2019 is an increase from the previous two incoming classes, in which liberals outnumbered conservatives roughly four to one.
The Harvard freshmen are markedly different from the rest of the country when it comes to religion, as well.
The leading religious belief among the freshman class is agnosticism, which is held by the 21.3 percent of the freshmen class, although just 4 percent of the country consider themselves agnostic.
Agnosticism is distinct from Atheism, which itself is the fourth most popular religious belief among Harvard freshmen.
Approximately as many freshmen identify as atheists (16.9 percent) as do Catholics (17.1 percent) or Protestants (17.0 percent).
Nationally, however, just 3.1 percent of Americans identify as atheist, whereas more than 20 percent of Americans identify as Catholic and almost 50 percent of Americans identify as Protestant.
According to the Crimson, 83 percent and 71.1 percent of the Harvard freshmen who identify as atheist and agnostic, respectively, also identify as liberal.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @peterjhasson
