London: The UK’s old may just have forced an exit from the European Union on the country’s young populace, if findings of a poll on Brexit are to be believed. In a historic referendum, UK today voted to exit the 28-nation EU bloc after the verdict showed 52 per cent (17,410,742) votes for leave over 48 per cent (16,141,241) voting against Brexit.
However, a voting pattern presented in a survey by YouGov, an international internet-based market research firm headquartered in the UK, showed that 64 per cent of the surveyed voters in the age group of 18 to 24 years voted against Brexit, i.e., Britain’s exit from the EU, while 58 per cent of those aged 65 and above voted in favour of it.
The research goes on to claim that “those who must live with the result of the EU referendum the longest wanted to remain”. This is based on the life expectancy among different age-groups, as per the ONS pension planner estimates.
As per these estimates, those in the age-group of 18-24 years have a life expectancy of 90 years while the figure for those aged above 65 was 89. The estimates, based on this life expectancy, further means that the average number of years that those who did not vote in favour of a Brexit will have to live with the decision is 69 years, as compared to 16 years that those aged over 65 will have to.
As per the survey conducted between June 17 and 19 covering 1,652 people, only 24 per cent of those surveyed in the age-group of 18-24 years voted to leave EU. On the other hand, barely 33 per cent aged above 65 voted against Brexit.
Among other findings in the survey, 45 per cent of those in the age-group of 25-49 voted against Brexit, while 33 per cent of the surveyed voted in favour of it. Similarly, 35 per cent in the 50-64 age bracket voted ‘remain’, while 49 per cent voted ‘leave’.
The verdict in favour of Brexit has had some significant repercussions – both economical and political.
World financial markets dived as nearly complete results showed a 51.7/48.3 percent split for leaving. Sterling suffered its biggest one-day fall against the dollar, hitting its lowest level in three decades on market fears the decision will hit investment in the world's fifth largest economy, while the greenback itself slumped below 100 yen for the first time in two-and-a-half years as traders fled to safety.
The pound collapsed to a 31-year low and currency, equity and oil markets went into freefall today as projections showed Britain has voted to leave the European Union.
The "too-close-to-call and knife-edge" prediction of the opinion polls seemed to hold true as Leave grabbed 52 per cent of the vote to Remain's 48 per cent with over 70 per cent of the results in.
Moreover, Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron just announced that he will be stepping down from his post in the coming three months. The negotiations with the EU following Britain’s exit, Cameron said, will be taken up by a new Prime Minister.
