Departments

• As of fall 2023, approximately 482 departments were awarding degrees in religion at colleges and universities in the United States. These departments included large, freestanding departments in the discipline, programs in a department awarding degrees in multiple disciplines (in which case the department chair was asked to report information only for religion), and departments focused on a specific religion.
• Of the 482 departments awarding degrees in religion, 138 (29%) were conferring graduate degrees in the subject, with 73 (15%) awarding PhDs.

Faculty

• Religion departments employed 4,390 full- and part-time faculty members in fall2023, with an average of 9 faculty members per department (and a median of 8).
• Approximately 66% of religion faculty members either had tenure or were on the tenure track.
• Faculty members employed full-time with tenure or on the tenure track taught an average of 42 undergraduate students in fall 2023, while full-time faculty employed off the tenure track taught an average of 95 undergraduates. Faculty employed part-time taught an average of 41 undergraduate students in that fall term.
• While 32% of religion departments had made at least one new hire for the 2023–24 academic year, amounting to 200 new permanent faculty, the departments collectively had lost an average of 380 faculty per annum over the previous two years. Approximately 68% of departing faculty had retired (the largest share among the disciplines surveyed).
• An estimated 21% of religion department chairs thought the number of tenure-line faculty in their departments had increased from fall 2020 to fall 2023, while 38% estimated that their tenure-line faculty count had decreased during that period. In addition, 27% of the chairs in the discipline thought the number of nontenure-track faculty had increased over the same period, while 17% thought the number had decreased.
• Looking ahead, 11% of chairs expected the number of tenure-track faculty to increase in their departments. This was one of the smallest shares among the 14 disciplines in the survey. Approximately 35%, one of the largest shares among the disciplines, thought the number would shrink. (The remainder thought the most likely outcome would be no change or were not sure what would happen). In contrast, 22% thought their nontenure-track faculty count would increase, while 18% thought the number would decrease.
• About 40% of the departments had a faculty member come up for tenure in the previous two years. Averaging over these two years, 120 faculty were granted tenure per annum nationwide, none were denied tenure, and 40 left prior to a tenure decision.
• Because it is not appropriate for a person to assign a demographic identity to another person, the survey did not ask department chairs to report their faculty members’ races or genders. However, the survey did ask chairs to describe themselves. Women constituted 45% of the chairs in religion departments in fall 2023, and 84% identified their race/ethnicity as white.

Undergraduate Students

• In fall 2023, departments that awarded degrees in religion had undergraduate course enrollments of 217,050, with an average enrollment of 450 per department.(These are duplicated enrollment figures, with students taking multiple courses in the discipline counted in every course.) The average is skewed upward by large programs, typically at research universities, which had significantly larger-than-average enrollments, as indicated by a median enrollment of only 305.
• Approximately 76% of religion department chairs thought undergraduate enrollments had held steady or increased from fall 2020 to fall 2023—a relatively large share among the 14 disciplines in the survey.
• On average, religion departments awarded 5 bachelor’s degrees per department in the 2022–23 academic year (with a median of 5 per department). These departments had an average of 15 juniors or seniors with a declared major in the subject (and a median of 10).
• In the 2022–23 academic year, religion departments awarded an average of 8 minors in the subject (with a median of 6 per department) and 8 certificates or other microcredentials per department (with a median of 6). While half of the departments awarded a minor, only 13% reported awarding a certificate or other microcredential.

Graduate Students

• Degree-granting departments in religion had 7,270 enrollments in graduate courses in fall 2023, with an average of 52 (and a median of 26) enrollments per department with a graduate program.
• Approximately 3,530 students were working toward graduate degrees in religion. The average number of students pursuing an advanced degree in religion was 25 (with a median of 16) per department that granted such degrees.
• The 73 departments awarding PhDs admitted an average of 4.4 new doctoral students into their programs in fall 2023, for a total of 320 new doctoral students in the discipline.

Departmental Practices and Concerns

• Approximately 61% of department chairs were optimistic about the future of religion at their institutions, while 23% were pessimistic. (The remainder were either unsure or neither optimistic nor pessimistic.)
• The survey found that 23% of chairs in religion were concerned about the academic freedom of faculty members in their department. Among those departments, the most common concern was about threats to such freedom from academic administrations (cited by 66% of chairs). The second most common concern was about federal or state governments and students (with each group cited by 45% of chairs).
• While 92% of religion departments provided research support for their full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty members, and 74% offered such support for full-time nontenured faculty, only 23% offered such support for part-time faculty.
• Asked what their departments had done in recent years to attract additional majors into their departments, 77% of chairs reported outreach to students in community colleges (the only discipline in the survey to make this such a significant priority). The second most common recruitment strategy, reported by 66% of department chairs, was outreach to students who were in other majors or undeclared.
• An estimated 61% of departments supported the career development of their undergraduates by offering (and for a small share of departments, by requiring) occupationally oriented lectures, while 61% offered internships, and 41% offered occupationally oriented coursework or workshops.
• In departments awarding doctorates in the discipline, 65% offered occupationally oriented lectures for their doctoral students; 48% offered internships; and 76% offered occupationally oriented coursework or workshops.