10 Largest Fraternities

What’s the largest fraternity in the country? Find out here…

The largest fraternities aren’t necessarily the oldest, but they’re all very well known on college campuses. Being a member of one of the largest frats is a point of pride for many members. Check to see if your fraternity or the fraternity you want to be in is on the list.

The oldest fraternity on both of these lists is Sigma Chi, founded in 1855.

What is the largest fraternity?

There are two ways most people rank frats when discussing the largest fraternities. First, you can rank them by number of members. Currently, the largest fraternity by number of members is Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

You can also rank frats by the number of active chapters across college campuses. Tau Kappa Epsilon holds this distinction with 290 chapters in colleges and universities.

All of the following fraternities are current members of the North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC.) Some large fraternities left the NIC in 2002, but Kappa Sigma was the only departing frat large enough to crack the top 10. They currently have over 290,000 members.

10 largest fraternities by members

  1. Sigma Alpha Epsilon: 304,000 members
  2. Sigma Chi: 300,000 members
  3. Sigma Phi Epsilon: 289,000 members
  4. Lambda Chi Alpha: 280,000 members
  5. Tau Kappa Epsilon: 265,000 members
  6. Pi Kappa Alpha: 240,000 members
  7. Sigma Nu: 225,000 members
  8. Beta Theta Pi: 183,769 members
  9. Alpha Tau Omega: 181,000 members
  10. Alpha Phi Alpha: 175,000 members

10 largest fraternities by active chapters

  1. Tau Kappa Epsilon: 290 chapters
  2. Sigma Chi: 246 chapters
  3. (tie) Sigma Alpha Epsilon: 246 chapters
  4. Sigma Phi Epsilon: 234 chapters
  5. Pi Kappa Alpha: 220 chapters
  6. Lambda Chi Alpha: 218 chapters
  7. Sigma Nu: 184 chapters
  8. Alpha Epsilon Pi: 155 chapters
  9. Pi Kappa Phi: 142 chapters
  10. Delta Chi: 137 chapters

Interesting facts about the country’s largest fraternities

  • Sigma Chi has the most members currently attending college with 15,500.
  • The oldest fraternity on either list is Beta Theta Pi, founded in 1839.
  • The oldest fraternity on both lists is Sigma Chi, founded in 1855.
  • The youngest fraternity on either list is Alpha Epsilon Pi, which was founded in 1913.
  • The youngest fraternity on both lists is Lambda Chi Alpha, founded in 1909.
  • Pi Kappa Alpha has the largest average chapter size with 68 members per chapter.
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