Government affairs

Since 1939, the Pew Research Center has tracked trends in voters’ party identification. For more than 70 years, with few exceptions, more Americans have identified as Democrats than as Republicans. The biggest change in party affiliation in recent years has been the growing share of Americans who decline to affiliate with either party–39 percent of voters call themselves independents, 32 percent say they’re Democrats and 23 percent call themselves Republicans.

This is the highest percentage of independents in more than 75 years of public-opinion polling.

Nonetheless, most of those who identify as independents do lean toward a party. In many respects, they often share attitudes that are similar to those of partisans; they just prefer not to identify with a party. The balance of leaned partisan affiliation has changed little in recent years–48 percent identify with the Democratic Party or lean Democratic, whereas 39 percent identify as Republicans or lean toward the GOP.