On April 20th, The Daily Princetonian published its second annual Senior Survey, which asked the Class of 2023 questions ranging from their political affiliations to religious beliefs. Approximately 44.1 percent of the 1,296 members of the Class of 2023 responded to the survey. The report follows the Prince’s first Senior Survey published last year.
While many of the questions in the 2023 survey are different than its 2022 counterpart, making direct comparisons imperfect in many cases, there were some noticeable changes between the two.
This year’s survey revealed a slight uptick in the number of students who identify as very conservative and a sharp decrease in those who identify as moderate. Among those right-of-center, 6.9 percent of this year’s respondents identify themselves as “somewhat conservative,” and 2.5 percent as “very conservative.” Last year, 6.9 percent described themselves as “somewhat right-wing” and 1.6 percent identified as “very right-wing.” In 2022, 17.4 percent of respondents reported being moderate, in comparison to 9.2 percent in 2023.
5.7 percent of this year’s respondents reported voting for Donald Trump in 2020, a slight increase from 5.0 percent reported in last year’s survey.
Much of the Class of 2023 continues to identify as left-of-center, with approximately 79.9 percent of the class identifying as left of center, an increase of roughly 5 percent from the previous year, in which 74.1 percent of students reported that they “lean left politically.” This year’s breakdown is as follows: 27.4 percent of students identify as “slightly liberal,” 35.1 percent as “very liberal,” and 17.4 percent as “leftist/socialist.”
This year’s survey reveals that political identity is strongly correlated to comfort expressing political beliefs for members of the senior class. The closer to left-of-center respondents were, the more comfortable they reported expressing their beliefs. 39.1 percent of students who identify as “very liberal” felt “very comfortable” sharing their political beliefs publicly, whereas only 7.1 percent of “very conservative” students felt as comfortable expressing theirs.
Adhering to broader trends of religious decline in the US, with over 65 percent of seniors self-describing as “not at all religious” or “not very religious.”
Christianity was the most common religion on campus, with 34.7 percent of students identifying as some form of Christian. Within Christianity, Catholicism was the most common denomination, with 13.8 percent of seniors, and Protestantism took a close second at 11.1 percent of the class. Meanwhile, 9.8 percent consider themselves to be believers in a type of Christianity other than Catholicism or Protestantism.
Judaism was the second most common religion, at 8.3 percent of seniors. Islam and Hinduism tied for the third most prolific religion, accounting for 3.7 percent each. Additionally, 1.7 percent of seniors identify as Buddhist.
19.6 percent of students reported coming out as LGBTQ+ at Princeton, and 34.9 percent of students reported identifying as a sexuality other than straight, as compared to the national average of 7.1 percent.
Of respondents, 1.9 reported that they identify as transgender, as compared to the national average of 0.5 percent, and 1.6 percent reported identifying as non-binary, 1.3 percent higher than the 0.3 percent national average.
Students were also polled on their approval of the Department of Public Safety (PSAFE). On The Daily Princetonian website, results were stratified by race with no general category available to viewers. Less than one quarter of respondents of each racial group viewed PSAFE unfavorably, except for African Americans, of whom 43.2 percent held unfavorable views of the Department of Public Safety.
(Photo courtesy of The Daily Princetonian Instagram account)
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