A survey blames demographic differences for Brexit outcome

A widespread difference in the demographic structure of the United Kingdom led to the outcome of Brexit during the EU referendum. Surveys have found that age played a significant role in the voters' voting decision. Older people, by and large, opted for Brexit, while the younger generation essentially voted for Bremain.

The thin line of majority votes that Brexit had achieved can be explained by the stark generation gap that Britain is facing. With a majority of the Britons in the age group above 60 years, it is more than twice as likely that they had opted to leave the EU, than those younger than 25 years of age.

A recent poll surveying people in 10 EU countries similarly suggests that young people tend to have more favorable views on the EU than older respondents (here defined as + 50 years). In six out of ten surveyed countries, the "generation gap" is actually larger than 10 percentage points. Italy stands out in two respects; firstly, it shows virtually no difference between "young" and "old" respondents (55 percent and 56 percent with favorable views).

Secondly, here it is actually the "mid-aged" bracket which states more positive attitudes towards the EU (63 percent for 35-49 year olds) than both the younger and the older generation. This is unusual because regardless of cross-country differences in levels of EU favorability, the share of respondents with positive views typically decreases with age.

Meanwhile, similar patterns can also be observed in Eurobarometer polls; for example, 59 percent of very young respondents aged 15-24 years in the EU28 cite the "freedom to travel, study and work" when being asked what the EU personally means to them. This is 10 percentage points more than the average across all age groups (49 percent) and clearly higher than among people older than 55 years (42 percent).