Washington, Nov 20 (IANS): A research published this week showed that the Democratic party has lost nearly 1,000 seats in state legislatures across the country over the past eight years under President Barack Obama.

After a net gain of 46 seats in this month's elections, Republicans now control 4,170, or 56 per cent of state legislature seats, while the Democrats fill 3,129, mounting to 42 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

The GOP's staggering advantage was accumulated over the span of the Obama administration, as it gained more than 700 seats in the 2010 mid term elections and nearly 300 in the 2014 elections.

To the Democrats' solace, it took back more than 100 seats in 2012.

Starting next year, the GOP will control 67 of 98 partisan legislative chambers across the country, and the complete control 24 states' legislatures.

Only five states -- Hawaii, California, Oregon, Connecticut and Rhode Island-have both of their legislative chambers held by Democrats.

The overwhelming lead the GOP now enjoys in the federal and state level institutions gives it significant sway in legislations across the country.