British Millennials have themselves to blame for what happened
The polling data ahead of the vote shows that 19% of young people wouldn't vote or didn't know how they'd vote.
In a surprising decision, Britain voted on Thursday to leave the European Union in a vote of 52% “leave” versus 48% “remain.”
The results show that 17.4 million people voted leave, while 16.1 million for remain. There was a 72% voter turnout.
Perhaps the most outraged demographic—at least on social media— are the Millennials.
It’s not surprising since a majority of younger people supported staying in the EU, while their older counterparts were more in favor of leaving.
According to CNN Money, the younger population saw the biggest impact on their wages following the financial crisis and they've also expressed the most concern about their future job prospects. Also according to CNN Money, millennials are pointing fingers at voters who have "stolen our future"
That said, there may have been a little too much apathy among the younger generation. And they may need to consider point their fingers at themselves.
A Wall Street Journal analysis of polling data shows a huge portion of younger voters had planned to sit on the sidelines. According to the report, 19% of voters 18 to 24 said they "wouldn't vote" or "didn't know." Another 17% of voters 25 to 49 said the same thing.
The number of UK millennials who sat on the sidelines for this vote is unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/tgjPelkVhA
— web smith (@web) June 24, 2016
The data also shows that 60% of the 18 to 24 voters wanted to stay, while 45% of 25 to 49 wanted to stay.
Meanwhile, 10% of voters age 50 to 64 were undecided or planned to abstain from voting, while only 6% of voters 65 and older were going to sit out or didn't know. A majority of voters in those categories were in favor of leaving—48% for those 50 to 64 and 60% for those 65 and up.
In all, it’s impossible to get a clear breakdown of the actual vote since it’s a secret ballot, but if the polling data is any indication, it shows just how important it is to cast a vote, especially for young people.
--
Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance.
Read more:
John Burbank: This time of peril may herald the beginning of 'the liquidation'
Raoul Pal: The stock market is behaving the way it did back in 2000
Hedge fund titans warn of financial crisis-like market signals
How one fund manager is preparing for the market liquidity crisis
Raoul Pal: the Brexit vote is about so much more than Britain leaving the EU
