As Gen Z Americans grow into a larger share of the electorate, a partisan and ideological gap is widening among young men and women. This Spotlight Analysis examines young Americans’ partisanship and ideology over the past decade, with attention to differences by gender and race. Partisanship among young Americans has shifted somewhat over this period, while political ideology has stayed fairly consistent — though with notable differences by race.

Americans’ Party Affiliation Today

As of 2025, around three in ten Americans identify as Republicans (31%), an increase from 22% in 2013. Just under three in ten identify as Democrats (28%), a decrease from its peak of 35% in 2020. Between 2024 and 2025, Republican identification increased slightly from 29%, while Democratic identification declined from 30%. Since 2013, the percentage of Americans who identify as independent dropped from 37% to 26%, while the share identifying as “other” nearly doubled, from 9% to 15%, over the same period.

Age is clearly linked to partisanship. While older Americans are more likely to identify as Republican, every age group saw an increase in Republican identification from 2024 to 2025. In recent years, Democratic identity has declined among Americans over 30 but remained steady among the youngest Americans. Meanwhile, Americans ages 18-29 and 30-49 identify as “other” at notably higher rates than older Americans or the public overall.

How Young Americans’ Party Affiliation Differs by Race and Gender

When examining Americans’ partisan identity by gender, we see the most pronounced gender gap among young Americans. In 2025, 27% of young men identified as Republican, compared with 21% of young women — a 6-point spread. This gender gap has widened significantly since 2013, when 18% of young men and 14% of young women identified as Republican. However, young women saw a significant increase in Republican identity since 2024 (17% to 21%), while young men did not (26% to 27%).

Since 2013, young men’s attachment to the GOP has fluctuated, with most of the growth seen over that time coming from young white men, whose Republican affiliation rose from 26% in 2013 to 35% in 2025. Among young men of color, young Hispanic men saw an 11-percentage-point increase in Republican identification from 12% in 2021 to 21% in 2025. Gains have been far more muted among young Black men whose Republican Party identification has changed relatively little, aside from a brief uptick in 2019.

Across racial groups, young women remain consistently less likely to identify as Republican and more likely to identify as Democratic than their male counterparts. In 2025, around one in four young white women (23%) aligned with the Democratic Party, compared with 18% of young white men. This gap remains despite the fact that young white women were the only group to grow more Republican since 2024, growing from 24% to 31%. The gender gap in Republican identity among young Hispanic Americans has ranged over time from 2 to 10 points, with young Hispanic women being 10 points less likely to identify as Republican in 2025 (11%) than young Hispanic men (21%). In 2025, pluralities of young Black men (38%) and women (35%) identified as Democrats.

Notably, young Black women have experienced the most significant decline in Democratic affiliation of any group, dropping from 62% in 2013 to 35% in 2025 — but they have not moved toward the GOP.  Just 4% of young Black women identified as Republican in 2025 — a share that has largely remained static since 2013, with peaks of 7% in 2019 and 2021. Instead, young Black women have been increasingly likely to identify as independent, select “other, ” or remain undecided about their partisan identity.

Americans’ Political Ideology Today

In 2025, 38% of Americans identify as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 27% as liberal. The shares of conservatives and liberals have remained consistent since 2013, while the moderate share has grown from 28% to 35% over that period. Conservative identification did tick up compared with 2024, from 35% to 38%.

More than four in ten older Americans identify as conservative, including 43% of those ages 50-64 and 46% of those 65 and older, compared with 28% of Americans ages 18-29 and 32% of those ages 30-49. Younger Americans, in turn, are more likely to identify as liberal: roughly three in ten of those ages 18-29 (33%) and 30-49 (30%) identify as liberal, compared with 22% of those ages 50-64 and 27% of those 65 and older.

There has long been a gender gap in ideology, and our data show that women report being less conservative than men across most age groups — except for Americans ages 30-49, where the gap largely disappears. Among young Americans in 2025, men ages 18-29 were 10 points more likely than women ages 18-29 to identify as conservative (33% vs. 23%, respectively) and less likely to identify as liberal (25% vs. 40%, respectively).

A Closer Look at the Political Ideology Gender Gap Among Young Americans

In 2025, young white men (37%) were more likely than Hispanic men (30%) and Black men (25%) to identify as conservative. Overall, though, young men have become slightly more conservative in the past decade: 31% of young men identified as conservative in 2013, compared with 33% in 2025. Notably, only young white men have grown somewhat more conservative since 2019, from 32% to 37%, while young Hispanic and Black men have trended in the opposite direction.

Young women remain consistently less likely than young men to identify as conservative, and more likely to identify as liberal. Ideological identification among young white women has stayed largely stable in the past decade, while young Hispanic women have grown significantly less conservative (from 27% in 2013 to 19% in 2025), as have young Black women (from 25% to 12%). Young Black women have instead moved toward moderate identification, from 33% in 2013 to 48% in 2023 before declining slightly to 39% in 2025.

Takeaways From Analyzing Young Americans’ Party Affiliation and Political Ideology

Young men have long been more likely than young women to identify as Republican, and increasingly so in recent years. However, they still do so at lower rates than American men overall, largely because few young men of color identify as Republican and Generation Z is far more racially and ethnically diverse than older generations. Still, young men are not trending more conservative overall, even as young white men remain consistently more conservative than their Hispanic or Black counterparts.

Young women, by contrast, remain less likely to identify as Republican and conservative than young men, though they too show some partisan and ideological changes in the past decade. Young white women’s Democratic partisanship has remained fairly stable, alongside a slight rise in Republican identity. Republican identification among young Hispanic and Black women has remained very low throughout. Notably, an increasing percentage of young Black women — who were once overwhelmingly Democratic — are opting out of partisan labels, gravitating toward “independent” or, increasingly, “other” or “don’t know.”

Indeed, the growing percentage of young Americans who refuse to identify as Republican, Democrat, or independent, instead choosing “other” (23%), is notable and may reflect Americans’ unfavorable views of both major parties and low confidence in institutions. Despite the gender gaps seen across party affiliation and political ideology, similar double-digit increases have been seen among both young men and young women (12 points and 15 points, respectively) in the percentage who identify politically as “other,” introducing a new variable ahead of the consequential 2026 midterm elections.