Today, age is strongly associated with partisanship – and this pattern has existed for more than a decade.
The Democratic Party holds a significant advantage among younger voters, while the Republican Party has the advantage among older groups.
- About two thirds of voters aged 18 to 24 (66%) align with the Democratic Party, compared to 34% who align with the GOP.
- There is an equally large gap in the partisan affiliation of voters aged 25 to 29 (64% are Democrats or lean in that direction compared to 32% for Republicans).
- Voters in their 30s Democrats also lean, although to a lesser extent: 55% are Democrats or mostly Democrats, 42% are Republicans or mostly Republicans.
Neither party has a significant advantage over the other among voters in their 40s and 50s:
- Half of voters in their 40s associate with the Democratic Party and 47% are affiliated with the Republican Party.
- The actions are reversed between voters in their 50s: 50% are on the Republican side, 47% on the Democratic side.
Among voters aged 60 and older, the GOP holds a clear advantage:
- Republican alignment is 10 percentage points higher than Democratic alignment (53% versus 43%) among voters in their sixties.
- Voters aged 70 to 79 are slightly more likely to be aligned with the Republican Party (51%) than the Democratic Party (46%).
- About six out of ten voters aged 80 and over (58%) identify with or lean toward the GOP, while 39% associate with the Democratic Party.
A majority of older voters identify with a party; among young voters, a significant number skinny
Aside from differences in the overall partisan lean of younger and older voters, younger voters are significantly more likely than older voters to choose not to identify directly with a party.
For example, among voters 80 and older, 77% identify with a party (49% as Republicans, 28% as Democrats). Around two in ten people declare themselves to be “something else” or independent, most of them leaning to one of the parties.
For comparison, only about half (52%) of voters under 25 identify directly with a party (38% Democratic, 14% Republican). About half say they tend to be independent or independent, with 28% leaning Democratic and 20% leaning Republican.
Partisanship among men and women within age groups
Age differences in partisanship observed in the general public are evident among both men and women.
For example, men and women under 30 align with Democrats by a ratio of about two to one.
Male and female voters aged 30 to 49 are fairly split in their partisan allegiances, although the Democratic Party holds a slight advantage among women in this age group.
Republicans have a substantial advantage among men 50 and older, while women of that age are about equally likely to affiliate with either party.
Race, age and partisanship
Among white, Hispanic, and Asian voters, older adults today are generally more Republican (and less Democratic) than younger adults.
But this is not the case for black voters: 17% of black voters under 50 identify as Republican or mostly Republican, compared to only 7% of black voters 50 and older.
- In surveys dating back to the 1990s, young black voters have always been either slightly more Republican than older black voters (as in 1999, when 15% of those under 50 were or leaned Republican compared to 8% of those under 50). years and older), or there were no differences in black partisanship by age.
The partisanship of generational cohorts
Examining the partisanship of people born around the same time (age cohorts) allows us to compare generations over time. (For more details on age cohorts, visit Appendix C.)
Today, each younger cohort is a little more democratically oriented than the last. But this has not always been the case. For example, in the late 1990s, the partisan balance of voters across age groups (cohorts) varied only very modestly:
- In 1999, voters in their 70s – those born in the 1920s and coming of age under President Franklin Roosevelt – were 52% Democratic in orientation, 46% Republican. The youngest age group at the time – voters in their 20s, born in the 1970s – had the exactly the same partisan makeup. Only one age group stood out: those born in the 1960s (then in their thirties) were, overall, more Republican than the other age groups.
- Ten years later, in 2009, the then-youngest age cohort (those born in the 1980s and then in their twenties) were clearly more Democratic-leaning than the older groups, but there were few difference between older cohorts (although those born in the 1980s). The 1960s remained slightly more Republican than both the older and younger groups).
Today and for several years, a more marked – and more linear – age distribution is evident. People born in the 1990s (now aged 25 to 30) are more Democratic than those born in the 1980s, who are in turn more Democratic than those born in the 1970s. And the oldest cohorts are the most republican.
Partisanship of age cohorts over time
Voters born in the 1940s (ages 74 to 83 in 2023) have leaned Republican in recent years – but were equally divided in their partisanship a decade ago. The Democratic Party did not have an advantage among this group during the first year of the Obama administration.
Voters born in the 1950s (ages 64 to 73 in 2023) are more likely to be Republicans or Republican-leaning (52%) than Democrats or Democratic-leaning (44%). The GOP has held an advantage over this group in recent years, following growth in GOP affiliation over the past 15 years.
Compared to those born in the following decade, voters born in the 1960s (aged 54–63 in 2023) tended to be more closely aligned with the GOP throughout their adult lives. Currently, the GOP has a 5 percentage point advantage over Democrats among these voters (50% to 45%).
Voters born in the 1970s (ages 44 to 53 in 2023) have consistently been more likely to align with Democrats than Republicans. Democrats have had an advantage of 3 points or more among these voters in 17 of 23 years since 2000. However, today these voters are about evenly split between associating with Republicans (49%) and Democrats (48%).
Voters born in the 1980s (aged 34 to 43 in 2023) favor Democrats in their affiliation and have done so since they reached adulthood. But the gap between the two parties has narrowed considerably in recent years among these voters. Currently, 52% of voters born in the 1980s associate with Democrats and 44% with Republicans.
Voters born in the 1990s (ages 24 to 33 in 2023) are more aligned with the Democratic Party than those in older cohorts. About six in ten voters born in the 1990s (62%) are currently associated with Democrats, and a similar share were Democrats or mostly Democrats when they first entered the electorate nearly a decade ago. (Note: Most people born in the 2000s are not yet eligible to vote.)
