The number of Republicans and Democrats in the country is just about even. In fact, the gap between the parties is the smallest it has ever been in nearly nine years of monthly tracking, according to Rasmussen Reports.

During the month of September, 33.9 percent of Americans considered themselves to be Republicans while 33.7 percent consider themselves Democrats. For both parties, those numbers are up less than a single percentage point from August. As a result, the number of voters not affiliated with either party fell from an all time high of 33.5 percent in August back to 32.4 percent in September.

During 2011, the gap between the two parties has been less than a full percentage point in five out of nine months. Each party has twice led by margins greater than one percentage point but never as big as a two percentage point gap. This suggests a rough parity has been achieved between the parties. Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has said that “the gap today between the American people and their political leaders is bigger than the gap between Republicans in Washington and Democrats in Washington.” His book, In Search of Self-Governance, is available at Amazon.com.

Prior to the middle of last year, Democrats had consistently held an advantage of greater than two percentage points, peaking with a ten point advantage in April and May 2008. See the History of Party Trends from January 2004 to the present.

Rasmussen Reports tracks this information based on telephone interviews with approximately 15,000 adults per month and has been doing so since November 2002. The margin of error for the full sample is less than one percentage point, with a 95 percent level of confidence.

In each of the recent election cycles, the victorious party has gained in net partisan identification over the course of the election year. It is worth noting, however, that the gains are generally short-lived.

Following Election 2004, the Republican partisan decline began in February 2005. After the 2006 election, the Democratic edge began to decline as soon as they actually took control of Congress in January of the following year.

Following President Obama’s victory in November 2008, the Democrats' advantage in partisan identification peaked in December before declining.

In January 2009, the month of Obama’s inauguration, 33 percent considered themselves Republicans, while 41 percent identified themselves as Democrats.

The biggest partisan gap advantage ever measured for Democrats was 10.1 percentage points in May 2008. In December 2008, the final full month of the Bush administration, the Democrats held an 8.8 percentage-point advantage.

Between November 2004 and 2006, the Democratic advantage in partisan identification grew by 4.5 percentage points. That foreshadowed the Democrats' big gains in the 2006 midterm elections. The gap grew by another 1.5 percentage points between November 2006 and November 2008 leading up to Obama's election.

The number of Democrats peaked at 41.7 percent in May 2008, and it was nearly as high--at 41.6 percent--in December 2008. That number fell below the 40 percent mark in March 2009 and first fell below 35 percent in September 2010.

For Republicans, the peak was way back in September 2004 at 37.3 percent. Since then, until recent months, the number of Republicans has generally stayed between 31 percent and 34 percent of the nation’s adults.

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.

Republicans have consistently held an advantage on the for more than two years.

More Newsmax?

It is also wishful thinking for the religious prejudice right in this country.

Considering all the Repub candidates are lunatics they have no hope for 2012 anyway.

A rabid response from you..............how typical... and of course the Demmers poop rainbows and talk with a silk tongue. Yeah, Obama speaks with a silk tongue too (and is teleprompter dependent) how's that working for ya?

Doesn't change the fact that it will make no difference with the lunatics on Republican side.

Yea it is wishful thinking for the religious prejudice right.

The article author should be punished for leading them on like that.

And rabid I never fluttered a feather

Did you see any results from the last election?

You mean the election that put a bunch of anti American tea partiers in office to stop any progress for the improvement of our situation because they hate black men?

Of course not.

You appear to be in a fantasy world.

You wish...lol

I wish you wouldn't generalize so much Dragoness. What progress? You mean raising the debt ceiling? Spending money we don't have? We need a real and a harsh first aid plan to get America out of this red, and I haven't seen the current administration offer little more than a band aid.

And no I don't agree with the republicans who want to do things to have a better "God" fearing country. The republicans for the most part are hypocrites.

I can agree that we need to end the wars and tax the uber wealthy to get out of this situation.

The lunatic Republicans wouldn't do that to save this country, that is for sure.

Obama may be the less of the worse but that is still better than what the Repubs are offering with their attempts to end this country.

How does taxing anyone at all help much less just selecting a few ,when the entire system is a fiat money system?By definition it will fail.
Its inherent in a fiat system .
Anyone blaming one side or the other is doing just what the bankers want.Fighting against each other rather than debating the real issues.and from the protests on wall street they sure are doing a good job.Those folks are suckers.

With the Bush tax cuts and all the loopholes we have lost important revenue that could have helped with this recession. They did not create jobs with those cuts so it is time for them to pay like the average citizens do. No more breaks for the non job creators.

Sorry but one side is worse than the other and I am not a Democrat but Repubs are bound and determined to tear this country down.

Do you mean morally tear it down .You mean get it back to the ideals and values we were founded on?Cause if so i may have to have a smigden of respect of one of the parties and i just cant do that.
N wait just a moment ....Who wants to tear the nation down???Hmm what about the protesters u have openly supported..are they not supporting a man whom has said multiple times that he wants to tear down and rebuild this nation?you do know that Van Jones is the man that organized this arab spring,that he calls american autumn...Those in the muslim brotherhood that carry out the arab spring ,isnt it their goal to cause so much disturbance that they can re mantel their government the way they see fit..
Are you the pot or the kettle?Or just glued to theTV?