Independents have grown to 47% of the population, rising roughly 10 points since just after President Donald Trump’s first term as president, according to CNN polling conducted by SSRS. Over the last 20 years, CNN polling found independent identification peaked in 2015 at just a shade higher than it is today: 48% of Americans on average across all CNN polling that year were independents.

The CNN poll was conducted among 2,480 adults nationwide by SSRS from May 7-31, using a combination of online and telephone interviews. The survey samples were originally drawn from two sources – an address-based sample and a random-digit dial sample of prepaid cell phone numbers – and combined. Respondents were contacted by mail, phone or text. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.