Britain chose Brexit because voters are poorly educated, say academics
A group of British researchers has claimed the British population would have chosen to remain in the European Union if they had been better educated.
A new study published by academics at the University of Leicester suggests Britain would not have voted to leave if just 3 percent more of the voting public had attended university.
The study assessed the reasons why some Britons voted to withdraw from the bloc and found that the level of education was the “predominant factor” in a person’s decision to vote Leave.
Other factors were also taken into account, yet the level of education was found to be far more important.
The research revealed that age and gender were also considerable factors, whilst the number of immigrants and income levels did not significantly influence a person’s choice in the Brexit referendum.
“The EU referendum raised significant debate and speculation of the intention of the electorate and its motivations in voting,” said Dr Aihua Zhang, an academic from the University of Leicester’s Department of Mathematics, the Independent reports.
“Much of this debate was informed by simple data analysis examining individual factors, in isolation, and using opinion polling data.
“This, in the case of the EU referendum where multiple factors influence the decision simultaneously, failed to predict the eventual outcome.
“On June 23, 2016, Britain’s vote to leave the EU came as a surprise to most observers, with a bigger voter turnout – 72.2 percent – than that of any UK general election in the past decade.”
The study also found that if the turnout had been just 7 percent lower, Remain would have prevailed.
