Since 1988, the share of adults in the U.S. who identify as political independents has continued to grow, often surpassing the that of Democrats or Republicans. In 2024, approximately 43 percent of adults rejected identification with the major parties, compared to 28 percent of respondents identified with the Democratic Party, and 28 percent with the Republican Party.

According to a 2023 survey, Americans between 18 and 29 years of age were more likely to identify with the Democratic Party than any other surveyed age group. While 39 percent identified as Democrats, only 14 percent identified ad Republicans. However, those 50 and older identified more with the Republican Party.

This graph shows the percentages of popular votes cast for the republican and the democrat candidate in the U.S. presidential election in 2008 by state. 38.7 percent of the popular votes in Alabama were cast for the Democratic party.

In the last few decades, the Democratic Party has often pulled ahead of the Republican Party in terms of party identification. However, 2022 saw a shift in party identification, with slightly more Americans identifying with the Republican Party for the first time since 2011, when both parties stood at 45 percent in 2011. These values include not only those surveyed who identified with a major political party, but also those who identified as independent, but have leanings towards one party over another.

The popularity of socialism in the United States has been increasing among people who identify as Democrats, rising from 50 percent in 2010 to 65 percent in 2021. Over the same time period, support shrunk among Republicans from 19 percent to 10 percent.

From 2021 to 2023, Republicans were found much more likely than Democrats to be Protestants in the United States, with 56 percent of surveyed Republicans identifying as Protestants compared to 38 percent of Democrats. However, Democrats were found more likely than Republicans to identify with no religion, with 26 percent of Democrats saying that they have no religious identity compared to 11 percent of Republicans.

This graph shows the democratic and republican percentages of two-party presidential vote in the U.S. from 1948 to 2008 for the white voters. 53% of the white voters voted for the democratic candidate in 1948.

With Abraham Lincoln's victory in the 1860 presidential election, the Republican Party cemented its position as one of the two major political parties in the United States. Since 1860, candidates from both parties have faced one another in 41 elections, with the Republican candidate winning 24 elections, to the Democrats' 17. The share of electoral college votes is often very different from the share of the popular vote received by each candidate in the elections, as the popular vote differences tend to be much smaller. Electoral college system In the U.S., the electoral college system is used to elect the president. For most states, this means that the most popular candidate in each state then receives that state's allocation of electoral votes (which is determined by the state's population). In the majority of elections, the margin of electoral votes has been over thirty percent between the two major party candidates, and there were even some cases where the winner received over ninety percent more electoral votes than the runner-up. Biggest winners The largest margins for the Republican Party occurred in the aftermath of the American Civil War, in the pre-Depression era of the 1920s, with Eisenhower after the Second World War, and then again with the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush campaigns in the 1970s and 80s. For the Democratic Party, the largest victories occurred during the First and Second World Wars, and for Lindon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton in the second half of the 20th century. In the past six elections, the results of the electoral college vote have been relatively close, compared with the preceding hundred years; George W. Bush's victories were by less than seven percent, Obama's victories were larger (by around thirty percent), and in the most recent elections involving Donald Trump he both won and lost by roughly 14 percent.

This graph shows the democratic and republican percentages of two-party presidential vote in the U.S. from 1948 to 2008 for the black voters. 65% of the voters voted for the democratic candidate in 1948.

As of November 2024, both of the major political parties in the United States were seen more unfavorably than favorably. Slightly more Americans saw the Republican Party in a more favorable light at 45 percent, compared to the Democratic Party, 43 percent.

In the United States in 2022, 48 percent of Republicans reported that they owned at least one gun, and 66 percent said that they lived in a household with a gun. In comparison, only 20 percent of Democrats owned at least one gun, and 31 percent lived a gun household.

Who are gun owners?

In 2022, significantly more Democrats were in favor of limiting gun ownership in comparison to Republicans. On the other hand, more Republicans were in favor of protecting the right to own guns in comparison to Democrats. When examined by education level, respondents who said they only had some college, but no degree, were the most likely to have said that there is at least one gun in their household. However, nearly a quarter of Americans over 18 years old said that they rarely carry a gun on their person.

Republicans vs Democrats Debate

The gun control debate in the United States has been a highly contested one. In light of frequent mass shootings, gun control laws have become the center of policy discussions. Democratic politicins tend to put significant emphasis on their gun control policies, and are overall more in favor in stricter gun control laws and want more background checks for those who want to purchase a gun. However, Republicans tend to work in favor of gun rights.

According to a survey from late December 2024, the two most important issues among Republican voters in the United States were inflation and immigration, with 25 and 22 percent ranking it their primary political concerns respectively. In contrast, only two percent of Democrats considered immigration their most important issue. Inflation and healthcare were the leading issues among democrats in the U.S.

According to a survey conducted in 2023, Gen Z teens were more likely than other generations to identify as independents in the United States, at 35 percent. A further 27 percent of Gen Z teens identified as Democratic while 22 percent identified as Republicans.

According to an August 2024 survey, approximately 44 percent of Americans who identify as Democrats had a very favorable view of labor unions. However, Republican voters were more split, with only ten percent having a very favorable opinion of labor unions.

The United States has had 46 presidents since George Washington's election in 1789. While Washington himself was not affiliated with any political party, and even argued against partisanship (something that the other Founding Fathers agreed with), political differences and personal rivalries between the Founding Fathers eventually led to the founding of the Federalist Party, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Thomas Jefferson. Washington's successor, John Adams, was the only Federalist president, before the Democratic-Republicans occupied the White House from 1801 until 1829.

Formation of the Democratic and Republican parties

The 1820s again saw political and personal rivalries lead to a split among the country's leadership, and the Democratic-Republican Party made way for the formation of the Democratic Party and the National Republican Party. The Democratic Party was formed by Andrew Jackson and his supporters, and was traditionally the more conservative of the major political parties in the U.S. until the mid-twentieth century. The National Republican Party was short lived, and eventually amalgamated with the Whig Party in the 1830s, who would go on to be the main opposition to the Democratic Party for the subsequent two decades. Four U.S. presidents belonged to the Whig Party, although it may be important to note that these four men only served a combined eight years in office, as two of them died a short while into their tenure. The issue of slavery was the most dominant and divisive issue in U.S. politics in the mid-nineteenth century, and regional splits emerged in both parties; the rifts did not break apart the Democratic Party, who favored state sovereignty on the issue, whereas the divide in the Whig Party saw it splinter into the right-wing Know Nothing Party in the south, and anti-slavery Republican Party in the north. The 1856 election was the first to feature candidates of both the Democratic and Republican Parties, marking the beginning of the major political rivalry that has dominated U.S. politics for the past 160 years.

Realignment

Abraham Lincoln became the U.S.' first Republican president with his victory in the 1860 election. From then until 1933, twelve of the U.S.' 16 presidents belonged to the Republican Party, while just four* were from the Democratic Party. Due to the legacy left by the American Civil War, the southern, former-Confederate states were a political stronghold for the Democratic Party, and rarely voted for Republican candidates in presidential elections; in contrast to this, the north, west and newly-admitted states tended to vote Republican. In the 1910s, the Republican Party transitioned into the more ideologically conservative option of the two major parties, and more fiscally conservative following the Great Depression; however, it was not until the Johnson administration in the 1960s, particularly due to matters regarding African-American civil rights, where the core voter bases switched into what is typically expected today. In the past century, there have been ten Republican and nine Democratic presidents (including Joe Biden), with Democrats occupying the White House for roughly 52 of these years. Republican voters in the twenty-first century are generally more conservative and right-leaning in regards to both economic and social issues, whereas Democratic voters tend to be the opposite. There are also strong correlations between political parties and their voters, based on issues such as location, ethnicity, wealth, education and age.

The popularity of capitalism in the United States has been increasing among people who identify as Republicans, rising from 67 percent in 2016 to 72 percent in 2021. Over the same time period, support declined slightly among Democrats, dropping from 54 to 50 percent.

According to a survey conducted in 2023, Americans were mostly divided on which political approach to gun policy made people safer from gun violence in the United States, with 37 percent citing the Democratic Party compared to 34 percent who chose the Republican Party. Similarly, 41 percent agreed that approaches to gun policy by the Republican Party put people more at risk from gun violence, while 38 percent shared this belief for Democratic gun policy approaches. In addition, there was a quarter of respondents on both sides who believed that these political approaches to gun policies had no impact at all.

This survey shows the top 10 Democratic states in the U.S. in 2011. In 2011, 66.9 percent of the population in District of Columbia considered themselves Democrats or were leaning toward the Democratic party.

Since the 1860 election, U.S. presidential elections have been dominated by candidates affiliated with the Democratic and Republican parties. While the electoral votes decide the winner of the election, these are generally decided by the winner of the popular vote in each state (or district), and the winner of the nationwide popular vote does not always go on to win the electoral vote. Interestingly, there have been a number of occasions where the winner of the popular vote did not go on to win the electoral vote, for example in the 2016 election, or, most famously, in 2000.

A survey held in the U.S. in spring 2023 found that 41 percent of Republicans watched Fox News every day or a few times per week, compared to only 21 percent of Democrats. More than a third of Democrats and Independents never engaged with Fox News, along with 19 percent of Republicans, highlighting the ongoing struggle cable networks face in keeping viewer numbers up.