Political party identification

Political party identification (Demographic Patterns)

Generally speaking, do you usually think of yourself as a Republican, Democrat, Independent, or what? Results weighted by WTCOMBNR (General Social Survey 2010 Cross-Section and Panel Combined)

Political party identification by Sex

	Male	Female	TOTAL
Strong Democrat	13.2% 299	19.2% 507	16.4% 806
Not very strong Democrat	15.9% 358	17.9% 474	17.0% 832
Independent, close to Democrat	14.4% 325	12.3% 324	13.2% 649
Independent (neither, no response)	16.3% 367	16.4% 434	16.3% 801
Independent, close to Republican	12.0% 272	8.9% 236	10.4% 508
Not very strong Republican	14.1% 319	12.5% 331	13.3% 650
Strong Republican	10.2% 231	9.9% 263	10.1% 494
Other party, refused to say	3.4% 76	1.8% 48	2.5% 124
No answer	0.5% 11	1.0% 27	0.8% 38
TOTAL	100.0% 2258	100.0% 2644	4902

Political party identification by Political ideology

	Extremely liberal or liberal	Slightly liberal	Moderate	Slightly conservative	Conservative	Extremely conservative	Missing	TOTAL
Strong Democrat	41.8% 325	19.4% 116	11.9% 205	9.6% 64	6.5% 52	8.3% 16	27	16.4% 778
Not very strong Democrat	20.6% 160	27.9% 167	20.9% 360	10.5% 70	5.7% 45	6.8% 13	16	17.1% 815
Independent, close to Democrat	19.8% 154	22.6% 135	14.1% 243	9.0% 60	4.7% 37	4.7% 9	13	13.4% 638
Independent (neither, no response)	9.0% 70	12.2% 73	23.8% 410	15.8% 106	8.2% 65	9.9% 19	58	15.6% 743
Independent, close to Republican	1.4% 11	6.5% 39	10.0% 172	19.6% 131	15.2% 121	14.6% 28	6	10.6% 502
Not very strong Republican	3.0% 23	6.2% 37	13.5% 232	22.4% 150	22.5% 179	10.9% 21	9	13.5% 642
Strong Republican	1.4% 11	3.0% 18	3.0% 51	10.0% 67	33.4% 265	40.1% 77	4	10.3% 489
Other party, refused to say	2.6% 20	1.5% 9	2.3% 40	2.7% 18	3.0% 24	4.2% 8	4	2.5% 119
No answer	0.5% 4	0.7% 4	0.6% 11	0.4% 3	0.8% 6	0.5% 1	8	0.6% 29
TOTAL	100.0% 778	100.0% 598	100.0% 1724	100.0% 669	100.0% 794	100.0% 192	145	4755

Political party identification by Age

	18 to 29 years old	30 to 44 years old	45 to 59 years old	60 to 74 years old	75 years or older	Missing	TOTAL
Strong Democrat	12.4% 120	12.7% 166	17.8% 251	20.0% 166	26.7% 92	10	16.4% 795
Not very strong Democrat	18.6% 180	19.9% 259	16.4% 231	13.0% 108	13.7% 47	8	17.0% 825
Independent, close to Democrat	17.5% 169	13.7% 178	12.5% 176	11.4% 94	8.1% 28	4	13.3% 645
Independent (neither, no response)	19.9% 193	16.8% 219	15.5% 218	14.9% 123	11.6% 40	8	16.3% 793
Independent, close to Republican	9.9% 96	11.0% 143	10.1% 142	12.6% 104	6.1% 21	1	10.4% 506
Not very strong Republican	12.4% 120	13.5% 176	13.7% 193	13.2% 109	14.2% 49	2	13.3% 647
Strong Republican	5.6% 54	8.7% 113	11.6% 164	13.3% 110	14.5% 50	3	10.1% 491
Other party, refused to say	3.1% 30	3.1% 41	1.8% 26	1.2% 10	3.8% 13	3	2.5% 120
No answer	0.6% 6	0.5% 7	0.6% 8	0.5% 4	1.2% 4	10	0.6% 29
TOTAL	100.0% 968	100.0% 1302	100.0% 1409	100.0% 828	100.0% 344	49	4851

Political party identification by Region

	Northeast	Midwest	South	West	Missing	TOTAL
Strong Democrat	18.1% 153	17.8% 187	16.6% 311	13.8% 155	0	16.4% 806
Not very strong Democrat	16.7% 141	15.2% 160	17.8% 334	17.6% 198	0	17.0% 833
Independent, close to Democrat	13.7% 116	12.3% 130	11.2% 210	17.0% 192	1	13.2% 648
Independent (neither, no response)	18.8% 159	17.6% 185	15.5% 292	14.7% 166	0	16.4% 802
Independent, close to Republican	10.2% 86	10.4% 109	10.5% 197	10.4% 117	0	10.4% 509
Not very strong Republican	11.3% 95	14.4% 152	13.7% 258	12.9% 145	0	13.3% 650
Strong Republican	8.1% 68	9.5% 100	12.0% 225	8.9% 100	0	10.1% 493
Other party, refused to say	1.8% 15	2.3% 24	2.0% 38	4.1% 46	0	2.5% 123
No answer	1.3% 11	0.6% 6	0.7% 13	0.7% 8	0	0.8% 38
TOTAL	100.0% 844	100.0% 1053	100.0% 1878	100.0% 1127	1	4902

Political party identification by Religion

	Protestant	Catholic	Jewish	None	Other	Missing	TOTAL
Strong Democrat	17.8% 415	15.6% 194	24.7% 23	15.1% 122	12.8% 49	2	16.5% 803
Not very strong Democrat	15.1% 352	20.4% 254	28.0% 26	15.7% 127	18.5% 71	3	17.1% 830
Independent, close to Democrat	10.8% 252	13.1% 163	15.1% 14	20.0% 162	14.6% 56	2	13.3% 647
Independent (neither, no response)	12.0% 280	16.9% 211	6.5% 6	25.7% 208	22.2% 85	10	16.2% 790
Independent, close to Republican	10.5% 245	11.9% 148	7.5% 7	9.0% 73	7.6% 29	5	10.3% 502
Not very strong Republican	17.4% 407	11.8% 147	5.4% 5	6.5% 53	9.7% 37	1	13.3% 649
Strong Republican	14.4% 336	8.8% 109	10.8% 10	2.3% 19	5.2% 20	0	10.1% 494
Other party, refused to say	1.8% 41	1.0% 13	2.2% 2	5.1% 41	7.0% 27	1	2.5% 124
No answer	0.3% 8	0.5% 6	0.0% 0	0.6% 5	2.3% 9	11	0.6% 28
TOTAL	100.0% 2336	100.0% 1245	100.0% 93	100.0% 810	100.0% 383	35	4867

Political party identification by Race

	White	Black	Other	TOTAL
Strong Democrat	11.8% 439	45.6% 302	12.7% 65	16.4% 806
Not very strong Democrat	15.8% 588	20.1% 133	21.7% 111	17.0% 832
Independent, close to Democrat	12.6% 470	11.9% 79	19.5% 100	13.2% 649
Independent (neither, no response)	16.4% 611	10.4% 69	23.6% 121	16.3% 801
Independent, close to Republican	12.0% 448	4.4% 29	6.1% 31	10.4% 508
Not very strong Republican	15.6% 582	4.7% 31	7.4% 38	13.3% 651
Strong Republican	12.6% 471	1.5% 10	2.5% 13	10.1% 494
Other party, refused to say	2.7% 100	0.9% 6	3.3% 17	2.5% 123
No answer	0.5% 18	0.6% 4	3.1% 16	0.8% 38
TOTAL	100.0% 3727	100.0% 663	100.0% 512	4902

Political party identification by Church attendance

	Less than once a year	Once a year	Several times a year	One to three times a month	Nearly every week	Once a week or more	Missing	TOTAL
Strong Democrat	15.3% 217	12.3% 84	17.3% 88	19.5% 153	14.4% 30	18.5% 169	65	16.4% 741
Not very strong Democrat	16.7% 236	19.8% 135	17.6% 90	19.9% 156	17.2% 36	15.0% 137	43	17.5% 790
Independent, close to Democrat	17.0% 241	15.5% 106	13.7% 70	13.2% 104	8.6% 18	9.1% 83	27	13.8% 622
Independent (neither, no response)	21.8% 308	16.9% 115	18.4% 94	13.4% 105	14.8% 31	8.9% 81	67	16.3% 734
Independent, close to Republican	8.8% 124	14.8% 101	9.2% 47	9.4% 74	13.9% 29	10.4% 95	38	10.4% 470
Not very strong Republican	9.7% 138	10.4% 71	13.3% 68	13.1% 103	20.1% 42	18.5% 169	59	13.1% 591
Strong Republican	5.9% 83	7.9% 54	8.4% 43	9.2% 72	10.0% 21	17.1% 156	65	9.5% 429
Other party, refused to say	4.2% 60	2.3% 16	1.0% 5	2.2% 17	0.5% 1	1.5% 14	10	2.5% 113
No answer	0.6% 9	0.0% 0	1.0% 5	0.1% 1	0.5% 1	1.1% 10	12	0.6% 26
TOTAL	100.0% 1416	100.0% 682	100.0% 510	100.0% 785	100.0% 209	100.0% 914	386	4516

Notes

The General Social Surveys (GSS) have been conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) annually since 1972, except for the years 1979, 1981, and 1992 (a supplement was added in 1992), and biennially beginning in 1994. The GSS are designed to be part of a program of social indicator research, replicating questionnaire items and wording in order to facilitate time-trend studies. This data file has all cases and variables asked on the 2010 GSS. There are a total of 4,901 cases in the data set but their initial sampling years vary because the GSS now contains panel cases. Sampling years can be identified with the variable SAMPTYPE.