WASHINGTON, D.C. — A record-high 45% of U.S. adults identified as political independents in 2025, surpassing the 43% measured in 2014, 2023 and 2024. Meanwhile, equal shares of U.S. adults — 27% each — identified as either Democrats or Republicans.
In most years since Gallup began regularly conducting its polls by telephone in 1988, independents have been the largest political group. However, the independent percentage has increased markedly in the past 15 years, typically registering 40% or higher, a level not reached prior to 2011.
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The 2025 findings are based on interviews with more than 13,000 U.S. adults throughout the year. In each survey, Gallup asks U.S. adults whether they identify politically as a Republican, a Democrat or an independent.
The recent increase in independent identification is partly attributable to younger generations of Americans (millennials and Generation X) continuing to identify as independents at relatively high rates as they have gotten older. In contrast, older generations of Americans have been less likely to identify as independents over time. Generation Z, like previous generations before them when they were young, identify disproportionately as political independents.
In 2025, majorities of Gen Z adults and millennials identified as political independents, as did more than four in 10 Gen X adults. One-third or less of baby boomers and Silent Generation adults were politically independent.
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The higher rate of political independence also results from younger adults today being more likely than young adults in the past to identify as independents. The 56% of Gen Z adults identifying as independents today compares with 47% of millennials in 2012 and 40% of Gen X adults in 1992.
Democratic-Leaning Independents Give Democrats Edge
Gallup has regularly asked political independents since 1991 whether they lean more toward the Republican or Democratic Party.
Last year, more political independents said they lean toward the Democratic Party than the Republican Party, with the 45% of political independents breaking down into 20% Democratic leaners, 15% Republican leaners and 10% non-leaners. That is a shift from 2024, representing a three-point decline in Republican leaners and a three-point increase in Democratic leaners.
Between 2024 and 2025, identification with both the Republican and Democratic parties fell by one percentage point.
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Taking into account Americans’ party identification and political leanings, an average of 47% identified as Democrats or said they were independents who lean toward the Democratic Party, while 42% identified as Republicans or leaned Republican. This breaks a three-year stretch in which Republicans held an edge in party affiliation.
Party preferences in 2025 essentially reverted back to what they were during Donald Trump’s first term as president, when Democrats held leads averaging five points. Democrats — who usually hold an edge — have had larger advantages than now in 1992 and 1993, 1996 through 1999, and 2006 through 2009.
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The shift in the annual average leaned party preferences, moving from a one-point Republican advantage in 2024 to a five-point Democratic advantage in 2025, somewhat obscures the true extent of movement in party affiliation that has occurred over the past 16 months. In the fourth quarter of 2024, which spanned the last month of the presidential election campaign and most of the Trump presidential transition, Republicans held a four-point lead in party affiliation. By the first quarter of 2025, that advantage had disappeared and the parties were on equal footing. By the second quarter, Democrats had gained an edge of three points, 46% to 43%, which expanded to seven points in the third quarter and eight points in the fourth quarter.
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Conservative Lead in Ideology Narrowest Yet
In addition to asking Americans for their party identification and leanings, Gallup asks respondents in each survey to describe their political views using a scale ranging from very liberal to very conservative. As usual, more Americans in 2025 described their views as “very conservative” or “conservative” (35%) than as “very liberal” or “liberal” (28%), with 33% identifying as “moderate.” However, the seven-point conservative advantage over liberals in 2025 is the smallest Gallup has measured in annual averages dating back to 1992. It is only the third time the conservative lead has been less than 10 points.
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Over time, more Americans have identified as liberal (up from 17% in 1992) and fewer as moderate (down from 43%), with conservative identification more steady.
Changes in ideological identification are mainly apparent among Democrats — 59% now identify as liberal, up from 33% in 2005 and 25% in 1994. Increased liberal identification in recent years is seen among most subgroups of Democrats.
Republicans’ and independents’ ideological identification has changed less over time, although more Republicans identify as conservative today (77%) than in 1994 (58%). Meanwhile, slightly less than half of independents, 47%, continue to identify as moderates, with the remainder tilting more toward conservative than liberal identification.
Bottom Line
The political landscape in the U.S. changed greatly in the first year of Trump’s second term as president. A record-high percentage of U.S. adults said they identify with neither major party, and a shift in independents’ political leanings caused the Republican Party advantage that aided Trump’s reelection to dissipate almost as soon as he took office. Over the course of the year, the Democratic Party regained and expanded its advantage in party leanings, a trend that was borne out in the party’s strong performance in 2025 special elections compared to similar races in the more Republican-favorable 2024 election cycle.
Importantly, these party shifts do not indicate that Americans are warming to the Democratic Party. In fact, favorable ratings of the Democratic Party are no better than those of the Republican Party, and are among the worst Gallup has recorded for the Democratic Party historically.
Rather, as in 2022 through 2024, these recent political shifts appear to be a consequence of one party’s association with an unpopular incumbent president (the Democrats with Biden and now Republicans with Trump). Negative evaluations of the president’s performance appear to persuade a subset of Americans, primarily political independents who have weaker attachments to either party, to side with the opposition party.
This dynamic has led to frequent changes in the party power structure in Washington in recent federal election cycles, with the incumbent president’s party losing control of the presidency or one house of Congress in each of the past six presidential or midterm elections.
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