An NBC report with the lede:

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.

(As the report notes – and as political scientists have long understood – those independents still vote a whole lot like registered members of one of the two major parties.)