Shawn Griffiths
Gallup released findings Monday that show independent voters make up a new record-high percentage of the U.S. electorate. Its data shows 45% of American voters self-identified as independent in 2025, breaking the 43% record in 2014, 2023 and 2024.
What’s more, Gallup found that one reason independent identification not only remains high but is growing is because two generations, Gen X and Millennials, are bucking historical trends by remaining independent as they get 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,” Gallup reports.
Additionally, younger voters are much more likely to be independent as they enter the nation’s voting population.
Gallup, like many polling agencies, likes to divide these voters into “leaners,” determining whether they lean Republican or lean Democrat. This tends to feed a narrative that independent voters don’t really exist in such great numbers and are really closet partisans.
Analysis tends to ignore that the U.S. has electoral systems specifically designed to divide voters into two sides and give them only those options. If a person goes out to eat, and their only options are McDonald's and Burger King, most people are going to consistently lean toward one over the other.
Yet, independent voters are breaking another historical trend recorded by Gallup. Specifically, independent identification tends to be higher in odd-numbered years, starts to dip in midterm elections, and then drops in presidential elections because voters are expected to pick a side.
This includes in many states where voters have to register with either major party in order to vote in taxpayer-funded primaries. These systems bar 27 million voters each election cycle – a number that doesn’t include voters who are party members just to vote in primaries.
This trend was broken in 2024. Independent identification hit the previous record high of 43% in 2023 but remained unchanged in 2024 – signaling how fed up voters are with the status quo.
U.S. citizens aren’t just self-identifying as independent. They are registering unaffiliated/independent/no party in greater numbers as well. In Colorado, for example, registered independents surpassed 50% of the voting population in 2025.