• By MuggleNet Editorial Staff
• 16 May, 2026
• Fandom

We all know the Sorting Hat takes your choices into account. But what happens when you ask thousands of real people to sort themselves?

Morning Consult did just that in a national poll, conducted in 2023, among adults in the United States. Though the report covered multiple topics relating to all things Harry Potter, one question was simple: “With which Harry Potter House do you most identify?”

As it turns out, a surprisingly large number of people are still waiting for the Sorting Hat to make up its mind. Among all adults surveyed, 57% said they were not sure which house they identified with. Gryffindor led the actual House choices at 21%, followed by Hufflepuff at 8%, Slytherin at 7% and Ravenclaw at 6%. 

But the fun is in the details. Here are some of the most interesting House trends hiding in the data.

Note: Due to the portion of respondents who replied “not sure”, the numbers below won’t add up to 100%.

Gryffindor rules them all (sort of)

No shock here: Gryffindor came out on top, with 21% of adults claiming Harry’s house as their own. That’s more than Ravenclaw (6%), Hufflepuff (8%) and Slytherin (7%) combined among people who picked a house at all.

Whether that reflects genuine bravery or the fact that Gryffindor gets the most screen time in the films is anyone’s guess. But if you’ve ever felt like everyone claims to be a Gryffindor, the data backs you up.

Gen Z is the Slytherin generation

Here’s where things get interesting. Among Gen Z adults (born 1997–2012), 17% identify as Slytherin, the highest rate of any generation by a wide margin. Compare that to just 1% of baby boomers and 3% of Gen X.

The shift makes a certain amount of sense. Gen Z came up in an era when the Slytherin aesthetic exploded across TikTok, Pinterest and BookTok. Lots of dark academia, green velvet, and (so, so many) Draco Malfoy edits. Not to mention more niche characters like Sebastian Sallow or the fan-created Mattheo Riddle. Where older fans grew up reading Slytherin as the house of the bad guys, younger fans grew up seeing it reframed online as the house of the misunderstood.

Your job might be more telling than you think

Some fun patterns in the data show up when you look at employment status.

• Students are wildly into Hufflepuff and Slytherin. A full 23% of students identify as Hufflepuff and 20% as Slytherin, the highest rates for both houses across any employment group.
• Government workers love Hufflepuff. Nearly 1 in 5 government employees (19%) picked Hufflepuff, the highest of any working group. Public service, loyalty, it does make sense.
• Self-employed folks and homemakers skew Gryffindor. Both groups topped 28% Gryffindor identification, suggesting the brave types may also be the ones running their own show.
• Retirees are the least sorted overall. Just 15% of retirees claimed Gryffindor, 2% Ravenclaw, 3% Hufflepuff and 1% Slytherin. The Sorting Hat, it seems, gets quieter with age.

Education and Ravenclaw

You’d expect Ravenclaws to be a bookish bunch, and the data does agree… kind of. Ravenclaw identification ticks up a bit with education level, from 6% among those without a college degree to 8% with a bachelor’s and 7% with a postgraduate degree. Frankly we would have expected a more dramatic jump in these numbers, but Ravenclaws would tell us you can’t argue with the data!

Postgrads were actually the most likely to identify as Gryffindor (29%) and Hufflepuff (11%).

The avid fans know exactly who they are

Here’s the most telling stat of the whole poll: among self-described avid Harry Potter fans, 43% identify as Gryffindor, 15% as Hufflepuff, 12% as Slytherin and 11% as Ravenclaw.

Compare that to non-fans, where the numbers collapse to 4%, 2%, 3% and 2% respectively. The closer someone is to the source material, the more confidently they sort themselves. Or perhaps non-fans just aren’t interested in sorting themselves, which also makes sense.

Looking at book fans, in particular, they lean Ravenclaw harder than movie-only fans, with 14% of avid book readers picking Ravenclaw versus 12% of avid movie fans. This one feels right. Books. Wisdom. Etc. etc.

The bottom line

If you’re a millennial Gryffindor with a bachelor’s degree who lives in the suburbs and streams HBO Max, congratulations, you are statistically the most predictable person in the wizarding fandom. If you’re a Gen Z Slytherin student, you’re part of a small but mighty wave reclaiming the house.

And if you’re still on the fence? Well, don’t fret. The largest chunk of respondents picked “not sure,” which is proof that sorting yourself isn’t always easy. You can take a look at the full report here. (Warning, it’s long.)