26% of the UK electorate voted to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum.
This is not quite right. In fact, 37% of the electorate voted to leave, which was equivalent to 26.5% of the total UK population at the time. Of those taking part in the 2016 referendum, 52% voted to leave and 48% voted to remain in the EU.
A post on Facebook claimed 26% of the UK electorate voted for the country to leave the European Union in the June 2016 referendum, but this is not quite right. The correct figure is actually 37%.
The post was corrected after Full Fact got in touch.
It previously said: “The figure of 52% may be the one you see quoted, but taking into account the restricted electoral college and those that didn't vote - just 26% of the electorate voted to quit the EU!”
The “electoral college” specifically refers to the US voting system, whereby each state is assigned a certain number of electoral college votes roughly in line with the size of its population. But the UK does not have an electoral college. It does have an electoral roll, however, which is a list of all eligible people who have registered to vote, known as the “electorate”.
It’s true that the percentage of the electorate that voted to leave (37%) is smaller than the overall percentage of leave votes (52%) because not everyone on the electoral roll voted, and some voters spoiled their ballots.
According to the Electoral Commission, there were 46.5 million people on the electoral roll at the time of the referendum, but only 33.6 million votes were cast. In total, 17.4 million people voted to leave the EU, which represents 52% of all votes and 37% of the electorate.
The 26% figure likely referred to the proportion of the overall UK population—which was 65.6 million people as of 30 June 2016—that voted to leave, including those who were not eligible to vote because they were too young, for example. The 17.4 million votes to leave the EU represented 26.5% of the overall population.
The post did share an image with overlaid text saying “only 26% of the country voted for Brexit”, which is correct, assuming “country” refers to the overall population.
It’s important that figures like this are correctly represented online. You can find more of our work checking claims relating to Europe on our website, including debunking a recent social media post claiming the UK is rejoining the EU.
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