In this blog, I’ll be discussing the inequalities between the age groups as well as the inequalities in social class and how these differences had an impact on the UK voting to leave the EU. In every political event that has taken place it is evident in the statistical analysis that the older people tend to vote more than younger people. Understanding why this happens is the number one solution on bridging the gap. A lot of research has been carried out to identify why the UK chose to leave the EU. There is research that supports which group of voters chose to leave or remain.

Class can be considered a ‘key dividing line’ in the EU referendum (Kirk, A 2016)

The majority of young people that voted, chose to remain in the EU. The statistic shows that the few that did not vote to remain are from poorer parts of the UK.

Statistics given by the BBC demonstrates that 73% of young people wanted to stay and 27% wanted to leave.

Differentiating levels of education and class overlap strongly in the UK. As a result, people living in poverty were more likely to vote for leave and households earning less than £20,000 a year were more likely to follow this decision. As well as this group, a higher percentage of semi-skilled or unskilled labourers also chose to leave the EU. Older people can fall into this category as some may no longer be working and living off a pension (Skinner, G. 2016).

FIG.1 Shows the different age groups that voted in the 2015 EU referendum (Coakley, J. 2016).

FIG.2 Shows the positive inclination between the percentage of DE class and the percentage leave voters (Kirk, A. 2016).

As we can see in the graph above, the group 65 and above mostly voted to leave the EU with the statistics showing 60% voting leave and 40% voted to remain (Whitley, P. 2016). In the group labelled 18-24 only 27% of the younger generation voted to leave while the majority voted to remain with the figures coming in at 73%. The most interesting group was the 35-44 as the percentage who voted to leave was 48% and remain just edging it with 52%. The percentage of remain to leave was basically 50/50 within this group. Ultimately what this graph shows us is that as the age groups increase so does the percentage of voters wanting to leave the EU. In contrast, the percentage for those who want to remain decreases depending on age.

The reasoning as to why the older generation decided to leave is debatable however it is suggested that they chose to leave the EU is because they weighed up the cost and benefits of membership. Meaning they looked at it personally and thought about whether their way of living will be better within the EU, or outside of the EU. In a survey carried out by The Independent, the question, ‘Why did you vote to leave the EU?’ gave a better understanding of the statistics in the graph above. Some older people closer to the north of the border voted leave as they wanted to be identified as Scottish rather than British. The majority of people who identified as British opted to remain while the people who identified as English were strong supporters of Brexit (Kelly, J. 2016)

Ipsos MORI collected data from polls and surveys and they found that more middle-class voters wanted to remain within the EU and Black and other ethnic minority groups wanted to remain. Their research also found that the younger voters that were more educated would be against Brexit as they would have the knowledge and understanding of how leaving the EU would impact their future negatively. Older voters from white backgrounds who did not have a university degree, and therefore had a lower level of education, generally opted to leave the EU. The research also found that no matter which age group they were a part of, the middle class would choose to remain and the working classes are more likely to vote leave (Skinner, G. 2016).

FIG.3 shows the turnout of voters by social class, age and gender in Northern Ireland (Coakley, J. 2016)

Age, Class, Gender and the EU Referendum

As we can see in the graph, the support for Brexit was stronger from those of working class backgrounds. However, males over the age of 45 tended to be more in favour of Brexit. The statistics showed that amongst those in the over 40 categories, 51% of males chose to leave whilst 49% of females selected to remain part of the EU. In contrast, the middle-class voters wanted to remain within the EU, as in the under 45 group 77% of males voted remain while only 23% voted leave. Within the middle-class category, female voters were in favour of remaining in the EU as there was a higher number of remain votes in comparison to the working-class female voters.

To conclude it is evident that there are inequalities between the age groups and social classes which ultimately had an impact on the result of the 2015 EU referendum. However, realising that these inequalities do exist is our first way in which we can become more united as people. We can ensure that in future political events decisions are not based on which class or age group it would be suited for but which decision would be right for the people as a collective. I believe we are moving towards this as young people are becoming more engaged meaning more people are involved in political events.

 

Bibliography

Coakley, J. & Gary, J. (2016) Northern Ireland: The Challenge of Public Opinion. Available at: http://qpol.qub.ac.uk/public-opinion-challenge-ni/ (Accessed: 2/03/18).

Kelly, J. (2016) How Much of a Generation Gap is there? UK: BBC.

Kirk, A. & Dunford, D. (2016) how the Results Compare to the UK’s Educated, Old and Immigrant Populations. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2016/06/24/eu-referendum-how-the-results-compare-to-the-uks-educated-old-an/ (Accessed: 2/03/18).

Skinner, G. & Gottfried, G. (2016) how Britain Voted in the 2016 EU Referendum. Available at: https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2016-eu-referendum (Accessed: 2/03/18).

Whitely, P. & Clarke, H. (2016) Brexit: Why did Older Voters Choose to Leave the EU?. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-why-did-old-people-vote-leave-young-voters-remain-eu-referendum-a7103996.html (Accessed: 2/03/18).