The areas and demographics where the Brexit vote was won

The decision for the UK to leave the European Union was overwhelmingly supported in parts of England with low income and education levels.

Average educational attainment, median income and social class in English local authorities were the strongest predictors of how residents in that area voted in the referendum. The results indicate that the greater the proportion of residents with a higher education, the more likely a local authority was to vote remain.

Wandsworth, Richmond upon Thames, and Cambridge, where around half of the population has a higher education qualification, all gave over two-thirds of their votes to remain. Just 14.2% have an equivalent qualification in the Norfolk seaside town of Great Yarmouth, which delivered one of the biggest leave votes of 71.5%.

Scotland proved the exception to this trend: people there voted to remain in the European Union regardless of their education and income. For example, just 17% hold a higher education qualification in North Lanarkshire but the voters there came out strongly for remain.

The median annual income in Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar is £19,340, way below the national average of £22,487. While most English towns with a similar average incomes delivered strong leave votes, the local authority in the Scottish islands gave a near 10-point victory for remain.

We examined six key demographic measures for each voting area and mapped them against the results in each location. While the measures demonstrate a strong correlation between a leave vote and education, income and class they are by no means the direct cause of a Brexit.

However there are also a number of outliers. Although the average age of an area wasn’t the best predictor of whether it would opt to leave or remain, it’s clear that densely populated urban areas with a lot of young people such as Hackney and Islington in London voted overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union.

Local authorities with a high proportion of people born outside the UK, typically in London, also voted to remain in the UK.