What is the largest national sorority?
 

I am just curious to know what the largest national sorority is? What are some of the smaller national ones?

Active chapters is I believe Chi Omega and followed closely on their heels is DELTA ZETA.... We are starting 3 new chapters this year! We are the largest International Sorority... at last count! Its is always flip-flopping! Tomorrow I can ask my advisor, she is up on all the "numbers''!

Same question, "Fraternity" subed in for sorority. I THINK it's either Sigma Chi, SAE or ATO, but I'm not sure.

Which do you consider the biggest? the one with the most chapters or the most brothers? TKE has the most chapters but SigEp has the most brothers. (as far as i know this may have changed)

Either/Or. Thanks for the info. I do recall reading that in the last five years more men have joined SigEp than any other fraternity

I know that ZTA is the third largest NPC sorority. I think (but don't quote me on this) that it is based on number of chapters. We have 231 right now, and are colonizing at Kansas State. (This past school year, we got 2 more colonies just in South Carolina! Woo-hoo! Now, ZTA has more chapters in SC than any other sorority in the state. There's more than 10!)

A friend of mine is a Phi Mu, and she's one the sweetest people I've ever met. If you're all like her, you must be a really great sorority! :)

Just some numbers i found on nationals web sites that are some of the larger houses.

Lambda Chi
300 chapters
227,000 initiated men

SigEp
258 Chapters
240,000 Men


Kappa Kappa Gamma
129 Chapters
186,000 women

PiPhi
134 Chapters

Here are the sororities ranked roughly by size (number of chapters currently active, not initiated women or number of chapters ever installed)

176 chapters - Chi Omega
More than 150 chapters - Delta Zeta, Zeta Tau Alpha
More than 130 chapters - Delta Gamma, Alpha Phi, Delta Delta Delta, Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Chi Omega
More than 115 chapters - Alpha Omicron Pi, Pi Beta Phi, Kappa Delta, Phi Mu, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta
More than 100 chapters - Gamma Phi Beta, Sigma Kappa, Alpha Gamma Delta, Sigma Sigma Sigma, Alpha Xi Delta, Phi Sigma Sigma
More than 50 chapters - Alpha Sigma Tau, Alpha Sigma Alpha, Alpha Epsilon Phi, Phi Sigma Sigma, Delta Phi Epsilon
50 or fewer - Sigma Delta Tau, Theta Phi Alpha


This is an old post by Fuzzie Alum from a thread back in February. While there ARE going to be slight changes in numbers and categorical shifts, this is the approximate break down.

PMMama---I believe Phi Mu is around 121 or so active chapters at last check. I'm not sure on the number of initiates though. I will admit we are much larger in the south, but I generally wouldn't say that we are a "small" group. (Not that there's anything wrong with that though) :)

Hope this info helps!

I believe it is my sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. with over 200,000 initiated women, and well over 800 chapters. I have been told that we are the largest national women's organization of any type. I also believe that Alpha Kappa Alpha is also pretty close to 200,000 women.

Hey PM_Mama00-
Its cool to be smaller!!! Were the opposite, with chapters mainly in the NE, Florida, Cali and Canada... But its sad when someone in another NPC says "Are you local?" C'mon, not everyone can list all 26, but atleast be able to recognize nationals!

-Alison

You listed Phi Sig twice! To clear it up, Phi Sigma Sigma has 112 active chapters in the US and Canada!

-Alison

It is an intresting subject, because this is one in which we can find a truth to. I believe the largest frats. are SIG Ep(number wise) and TKE(chapters). Let's not forget the largest frat. account($$$$); I believe Phi Taus wins that. From what I have read on all these national websites, Phi Kappa Tau wins in that round:D; gotta love our alumni. I forgot the word I used to find that info, but I went on Yahoo search engine. As far as sororities, Alpha Phi, Phi Sig, and Phi Mu are the sweetest. My girl is an Alpha Phi, but still their bomb:D! Phi Sig at SFSU is da shitnik! Phi Mu, Christina girl if your reading this call me;), if all Phi MU girls are like her, their bomb too. Sorry for going on:) on shitnik that dose not have to do with this forum, but I had to give props where props are deserved.
-HEATH
FKT San Francisco State University
www.bspotonline.com/phitau

Chi Omega
 

Wow 800 chapters is a lot!

As far as the other postings concerning chapters/size/etc, I've seen numbers of active chapters, and yeah Chi O has more than 170 (I hadn't been aware of the exact number) We've also got over 240,000 initiated members.

I'm not sure I could even conceptualize that many people to get an idea of just HOW big that is... I mean, same with any of these organizations not just Chi O. It's truly amazing to me :)

I'd like to see the $$$ in writing. I have a difficult time believing that Phi Kappa Tau is the "richest" in any sense. I would guess some of the older and larger fraternities would have more alumni donations....mainly, Sigma Chi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Phi Delt, Beta, Kappa Sigma or Pike.

I have been known to be wrong though. If you have some links, please post them.

Just to make sure that apples are being compared to apples and oranges are ... well, you get the point ... how many of those 800+ chapters are collegiate chapters?

Wouldn't you guys agree that different chapters also do better in different regions?? There are the 'bigger names' that pop up across the country, but I always get the feeling some are stronger in other areas.

For example, ZTA, Phi Mu and Tri-Sig are almost non-existant in CA.

Thoughts?

A LOT of those numbers were off. Sigma Chi has the most total initiates, TKE has the most chapters, and SigEp has the most undergrads. SigEp is second in both of the other categories, making it generally considered the largest national. PiKA is the 4th candidate for the largest national, as they are top five in every category and also have the most average number of men per chapter. Lambda Chi rounds out the top 5. Depending on how you look at it, the order flops, but those are the five that are the biggest.

As I believe someone pointed out in the winter... This is not accurate.... Pi Phi has 134 active chapters currently in the US and Canada. I am sure if it is inaccurate for Pi Phi, it is for some other chapters as well.

OK, OK, OK! Several people have taken me to task on these numbers, and I'm assuming you folks know your own GLOs better than I do. I'm sorry they are inaccurate. However, they were the best information I could get from the sorority websites. I noticed that only the very biggest sororities tend to come straight out and say, "We have x chapters." Everyone else futzes around with maps, or lists of all chapters ever installed, or something to make it near impossible to tell how many chapters they have - my own group included.

I really wish NPC would put up more info about the orgs on their site. Right now all they list is the year they joined NPC. I would like to see them list groups' symbols, philanthropy, year of founding, number of chapters, etc. And I would think it would be a lot more accurate than I was.

I'm not sure, but the majority are alumnae chapters. I would guess anywhere from 250-400 are collegiate chapters. However in the NPHC, the alumnae and alumni chapters are just as active as the collegiate chapters. (Lady Greek, if you're out there, can you check in with the info?)

Seriously people, don't kill the messenger!! FuzzieAlum was trying to be helpful....not trying to "slight" your organization if it happens to have more active chapters than the list would imply. As I mentioned in my first post (where I requoted the stats), there ARE going to be categorical shifts and changes to this list. If you'd like to tell us how many active chapters your org. has....great...but there's really no reason to be rude.

Thanks, Ladybug. Although I understand people jumping on me. I know I don't like it when someone states something as a fact about AXD, and they're not accurate, esp. if they are underestimating AXD rather than overestimating it. I don't want to perpetuate misinformation here, and if I'm posting the information, I ought to be responsible for its integrity.

Here's a question I'm curious if anyone knows the answer to, because I don't. What sorority has the greatest percentage of all chapters ever installed still active? For us it's around 115 out of 195, or 59%.

FuzzieAlum,

I am sorry... I truly did not mean to sound short.

I realized after your post and after I reread mine... I was.

Again I am sorry..

In the greek bond,
Shelly

Pertaining to fraternities, Phi Sigma Kappa is somewhere in the middle as far as the NIC groups, having 93 currently active chapters. I don't know how many inactive ones are out there, all I know is that it is too many! Our national is doing a good job of recolonizing chapters where there is a good alumni base and interest groups wanting to reactivate the chapter.

Chi O is one of the largest nationally. We're even the second largest women's organization in the nation.....with the Girl Scouts of America being the first! Delta Zeta and ADPi are pretty large on the national level as well!:D

I was given the answer, per the most recent statistics from our National Convention last week. The collegiate chapters comprise 393 of our 887 chapters worldwide.

Alpha Gamma Delta
 

Counting all new charters, recolonizations, pulled chapters etc, here are the "current" stats..

181 Total Chapters
115 Active Chapters
66 Inactive Chapters (not that you couldnt figure it)
123,000+ Initiates. Someone could probably contact IHQ and find the exact number
63.5% of Chapters Still Active.

That's really cool, Virtual Violet. Delta's Alumnae Chapters here in DC have been doing great work ever since I can remember. My Math teacher in High School is the curent President of Federal City Alumnae.

Thanks for the info, Virtual Violet. I knew that in Delta Sigma Theta (and most other NPHC groups), alumni/ae chapters tend to be just as active as collegiate chapters, which I think is great! I just have learned from experience that it can be difficult to get a read on which group or organization is biggest, etc., because different groups may count different things: just collegiate chapters, collegiate and alumn chapters, total initiates, active collegiates and alums, and so on. Its always best to get as much info as possible so that comparisons can be as accurate as possible. Thanks again!

You are not wrong. Profet's post was just a bs rumor. That info usually is not public.

Well, sometimes it is public. Phi Kappa Tau’s website reports that their Foundation has assets in excess of $11 million. (Phi Kappa Tau Foundation.) Meanwhile, Sigma Chi’s website reports that their Foundation had assets in 2001 of over $19 million. (History of the Sigma Chi Endowment Foundation.) Some other fraternities list foundation/endowment assets on their websites, while others do not.

damn, there are some big houses, i dont think the pi kapps are as big as that. But is size really that important, i sometimes think that the really big fraternities will take anyone. Maybe i'm wrong, and as for alumni donations, i have no idea but i did a report at school about the skullls at yale university and about what fraternities they came from, and most came from delta kappa epsilon (dke), including the president and his father, and numerous other yale alumni that were dke and part of the skulls.

Our house has I think only 54 active chapters. But as you can guess, our motto is quality not quantity. We are at at least kappa phi and I think a lot are inactive. Nationals have begun to take charters away from dangerous chapters. I think the greek system in general is getting smaller. The rush numbers from many of the houses here are not looking good for men at least. Negative media is just killin us here. Damn media.

On a different subject though, does chapter have anything special about their phone number. Our last four digits are 6294 and a lot of our chapters have that number with a different 3 numbers as the beginning. I know why and its a secret (kinda) so don't ask. Anyone else have something similar?

THETA XI
 

HEY I am renting a room at Theta Xi's house this summer and the number here is a 6294--I never realized that there was some significance to that, but I don't even need to know WHAT it is to think it's kinda' cool...

Thanks for the info! :)

greek love,
april

Okay... Because I had some down time today and research is my thing...

This is from each individual GLOs national website! If the information is incorrect... Please let me and your Nationals know... because I pulled it off the GLOs website, with the exception of Alpha Epsilon Phi and Theta Phi Alpha (they do not have active websites). The list is only consist of the Members of the National Panhellenic Council. If you have any additional information, please let me know... I will add it. Same goes for changes.

-----------------------------Year-------Current--Chapters
-----------------------------in NPC-----Active----Closed--% Closed
Alpha Omicron Pi---------1905------176
Chi Omega----------------1903------164
Delta Zeta ----------------1910------161
Alpha Phi------------------1902------148
Zeta Tau Alpha-----------1909------143--------76-------35%
Delta Gamma-------------1902------142
Pi Beta Phi----------------1902------134--------25-------16%
Alpha Delta Pi------------1909------133
Delta Delta Delta--------1902------133--------39-------23%
Alpha Chi Omega--------1903------133
Kappa Kappa Gamma---1902------129
Phi Mu----------------------1911------123
Kappa Alpha Theta------1902------122--------39-------24%
Kappa Delta---------------1912------122
Gamma Phi Beta----------1902------114
Alpha Gamma Delta------1909------115--------66-------36%
Alpha Sigma Tau----------1951------113--------37-------25%
Phi Sigma Sigma----------1951------113--------57-------34%
Alpha Xi Delta-------------1904------112
Sigma Kappa--------------1905------109
Sigma Sigma Sigma-------1951------107
Delta Phi Epsilon----------1951-------78-----------4-------5%
Alpha Sigma Alpha--------1951-------73
Sigma Delta Tau-----------1951------ 57---------38-------40%
Alpha Epsilon Phi----------1951------N/A
Theta Phi Alpha------------1951------N/A

Thanks, Angels & Arrows, for doing that ... I have to say also I am very impressed by groups such as D Phi E that have a small percentage of closed chapters. That's doing something right.

(I know some groups were hit hard by joining the NPC and losing some chapters, and other groups have been hit harder than others by campuses banning Greek life - I mean, you can't blame a national for that, so I don't mean to get down on the groups that have experienced those problems. Just trying to give kudos to those who are taking care of the chapters they've got!)