Independent Voters Hit Record High As Both Parties Lose Ground: Poll

A record-high 45% of Americans identified as political independents last year, with both Democrats and Republicans tied at 27% in party identification, according to a Gallup poll released Monday.

A record-high 45% of U.S. adults identified as political independents in 2025, surpassing the 43% measured in 2014, 2023 and 2024. pic.twitter.com/1vKF7J2RnE

— Gallup (@Gallup) January 12, 2026

The survey, which interviewed 13,000 respondents over the course of 2025, found that 45% of Americans are political independents. Of that 45%, 20% lean Democratic, 15% lean Republican, and the remaining 10% expressed no partisan preference — a three-point decline in Republican leaners and a three-point increase in Democratic leaners compared with 2024.

The five-point Democratic advantage among independent leaners erodes what had been a key GOP edge during the 2024 election cycle, returning party identification to the levels seen in Trump’s first term.

Despite this unfavorable shift in party preference, more Americans in 2025 described their political views as “very conservative” or “conservative” (35%) than as “very liberal” or “liberal” (28%), with 33% identifying as “moderate.”

The Gallup poll showed a stark contrast in party identification across generations. Majorities of Gen Z adults (56%) and millennials (53%) identified as political independents in 2025, compared with just 33% of baby boomers and 30% of Silent Generation adults.

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. pic.twitter.com/5JxXbwqyuU

— Gallup (@Gallup) January 13, 2026

The 56% of Gen Z adults identifying as independents today substantially exceeds the 47% of millennials who did so in 2012 and the 40% of Gen X adults in 1992.

Gallup notes that the shift does not indicate Americans are warming to the Democratic Party, as “favorable ratings of the Democratic Party are no better than those of the Republican Party.” Instead, the polling organization suggests these changes appear to be “a consequence of one party’s association with an unpopular incumbent president,” a pattern that has led to frequent changes in party power in recent federal election cycles.