The number of registered independents and third-party members is growing as voters are breaking from the two-party system at increasing rates, according to an NBC News analysis of voter registration data.
As of 2025, 32% of registered voters across the dozens of states and territories with reported data chose not to affiliate with either the Democratic or Republican parties, up from 23% in 2000.
The partisan affiliation data, compiled by Ballotpedia, is available for the 33 states, territories and districts that publish registration data by voter party affiliation.
But the trend is also reflected in broader national exit polls. The 2024 election polls showed that for the first time, self-identified independents outnumbered Democrats and were equal with Republicans.
Mary Ann Marsh, a political analyst in Massachusetts, said independent and third-party registrations are growing in number because of dissatisfaction with the major parties.
“I think people are just disappointed in politics and disappointed in party politics. And I think we’re seeing it now,” Marsh said, pointing to June’s nationwide “No Kings” protests as a sign that people can organize without a major party. “People are taking matters into their own hands.”
The analysis shows the increase in the share of independents has come at the cost of the Democratic Party. Except during former President Barack Obama’s 2008 election, the share of registered voters made up by registered Democrats has declined every year since 2000 across the jurisdictions with data.
The decline has accelerated in recent years, as the party’s share of the registered voters in jurisdictions with available data fell 1.2 percentage points from 2024 to 2025, among the largest one-year decreases since 1998. Republicans’ voter share has also declined overall, although it has increased since 2021.
Independents are growing more diverse as a voting bloc, both ideologically and demographically. About 56% of independents described themselves as “moderate” (rather than “conservative” or “liberal”) in 2024, up from 50% in 2012, according to an analysis of polls commissioned for NBC News by the bipartisan polling firms Public Opinion Strategies and Hart Research Associates. And 34% of independents were people of color, double the share from 2012.
The two-party system still dominates in the ballot box, as most voters still consistently vote for candidates from one party. In the 2024 presidential election, independents broke 49% for Vice President Kamala Harris and 46% for Donald Trump.
In North Carolina, the share of registered independents and third-party members has more than doubled since the turn of the century.
“The rise of the unaffiliated voter has been one of the major themes of American politics and North Carolina politics,” said Michael Bitzer, a politics and history professor at Catawba College in North Carolina. “The children of polarized politics that have known nothing but the two parties at loggerheads are probably making a pretty profound statement by saying we’re not going to register with either party.”
This growth in share of independent and third-party voters isn’t limited to moderate states. The share of people unaffiliated with Democrats or Republicans in West Virginia,which Trump won by 41 points last year, has more than tripled since 2000.
Sam Workman, a political science professor at West Virginia University, said the state’s primary rules, which allow independents to vote in party primaries, give voters a chance to cast a “meaningful vote” for the Republican candidate likeliest to be elected.
However, beginning in 2026, West Virginia Republican primaries will be restricted to registered Republicans.
The decline in partisan registration puts parties in a difficult spot, said Christopher Cooper, a professor of political science and public affairs at Western Carolina University in North Carolina. If fewer younger voters hold partisan affiliation, the parties will eventually have a hard time fielding candidates.
“The parties need to do something more than just win the next election. They need to build a structure for the future,” Cooper said. “They’re not telling people why membership has its privileges. I think they need to be aware of this, or else they’re going to have a real problem in the future.”
