• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, November 6, 2006

Nielsen//NetRatings finds that 36.6 percent of U.S. adults online are Republicans, 30.8 percent are Democrats and 17.3 percent are Independents in a recent release.

Nielsen//NetRatings analyst Ken Cassar, said "The fact that the online population is more heavily composed of Republicans than Democrats is principally a function of the Republican party's higher composition within the overall electorate. This is exacerbated by the fact that online penetration continues to be deeper among affluent households, which have historically skewed Republican."

The Web site with the highest concentration of Republicans was RushLimbaugh.com, then NewsMax.com and Bill O'Reilly.com. The Drudge Report and Salt Lake Tribune rounded out the top five Republican sites.

Among Democrats, the top three sites were BlackAmericaWeb.com, AOL BlackVoices and BET.com. Salon.com and Village Voice ranked fourth and fifth among Democrats.

More Online political party variance...

Political party members also have distinct tastes in online newspapers:

• WSJ.com has predominantly Republican readers, at 40.2 percent
• Democrats make up 25.8 percent of WSJ.com's readership
• Independents are at 24.3 percent

The New York Times online is a favorite among Democrats:

• Democrats make up 52.3 percent of its readership
• Independents compose 22.6 percent
• Republicans are at 18.3 percent

When respondents were asked about their political leaning:

• 36.1 percent, identified themselves as "Moderate"
• 32.5 percent, identified themselves as "Conservative/Very Conservative"
• 19.8 percent of respondents identified themselves as "Liberal/Very Liberal"

With regard to party allegiance demographics, neither party seemed to favor a particular gender or age group. Among racial groups:

• African Americans skewed Democratic; with a composition index of 231, they were over twice as likely to be Democratic as the average Web user
• Asians were 36 percent more likely than the average Web user to be Democratic
• Hispanics were 28 percent more likely to be Democratic
• White people were slightly more likely to be Republican

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