In November, 41.4% of Americans considered themselves to be Democrats, 33.8% said they were Republicans, and 24.7% were not affiliated with either major political party.

Both political parties registered slight gains since October when 40.3% of Americans were Democrats and 33.3% were Republican.

In September 38.4% were Democrats and 34.4% Republican. However, it must be noted that the beginning of the month featured the Republican National Convention. Later in the month, after Lehman Brothers collapsed to begin the financial meltdown on Wall Street, partisan identification became a bit more favorable for the Democrats.

Rasmussen Reports tracks this information based upon telephone interviews with approximately 15,000 adults per month and has been doing so since November 2002.

Currently, the Democrats today enjoy a 7.6 percentage point advantage over Republicans. That’s dramatically different from four years ago--in November, 2004, the edge for Democrats was a mere 1.6 percentage points. It’s also larger than the 6.1 percentage point advantage enjoyed by Democrats in November 2006 (see history from January 2004 to present).

These results are based upon tracking surveys of 15,000 adults per month. The margin of sampling error for the sample is less than one percentage point, with a 95% level of confidence.

Please keep in mind that figures reported in this article are for all adults, not Likely Voters. Republicans are a bit more likely to participate in elections than Democrats.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval Index shows that Barack Obama has earned favorable reviews during his first month as President-elect. Democrats continue to have a significant advantage on 10 key issues tracked by Rasmussen Reports and lead on the Generic Congressional Ballot.