Did young people bother to vote in the EU referendum?
Contrary to popular conjecture, our data suggests they did.
Despite claims that young people could not be bothered to vote, they did. In fact, turnout was 64% among 18-24 year olds and 65% among 25-39 year old, which is closer to the population average than could have been expected. 71% of people aged 18-24 voted to remain in the EU, and 62% of 25-39 year old?s. This confirms that the generational gap was really about how people voted, and not about whether they voted or not.
Written by Prof. Michael Bruter and Dr. Sarah Harrison from the ECREP Electoral Psychology initiative at the the London School of Economics (www.ecrep.org)Much has been said of the generational gap between young and old voters in the referendum on EU membership, but whilst the contrast in terms of preference, with young people massively supporting a vote to remain in the EU, was unanimously accepted, the question of youth turnout was far more ? and surprisingly ? controversial.
