Vote Compass respondents rated Opposition Leader Tony Abbott as the winner of Sunday night's leadership debate, with 41 per cent of respondents rating him the winner, compared to 35 per cent for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Twenty-four per cent of respondents who had viewed the debate were undecided on the winner.

Mr Abbott's victory was built on the greater certainty of his victory amongst Coalition-intended voters. As the graph below shows, among Coalition voters 82 per cent rated their party leader, Mr Abbott, the winner.

That compares to only 73 per cent of Labor intended voters backing their party leader, Mr Rudd, while 55 per cent of Green intended voters backed Mr Rudd.

Vote Compass analysis showing people's opinions on who won the August 11 leaders debate, broken down according to people's voting intentions. ( ABC News )

Only 14 per cent of Coalition intended voters stated they were unsure who had won the debate compared to 23 per cent of Labor voters and 38 per cent of Green supporters. Undecided voters were also 52 per cent undecided on who won but those with a view plumped for Mr Rudd over Mr Abbott 31 per cent to 17 per cent.

However, the number of undecided and intended 'other party' voters was quite small compared to Coalition, Labor and Green supporters.

A similar division arises when you look at who won based on voters' own assessment of their personal left-right ideology.

Mr Abbott was listed as winner by 88 per cent of Right voters and 67 per cent of Centre-Right voters, while Mr Rudd rated only 71 per cent amongst Left voters and 59 per cent amongst Centre-Left. Mr Rudd was rated the winner 38 per cent to 29 per cent among self-identified Centre voters.

Centre voters were the most likely to be unsure of the winner, followed by both categories of Left voters.

Mr Abbott is from the right of the Liberal Party in comparison to both his predecessors, and clearly Coalition supporters feel comfortable with his ideological position.

Such certainty seems less evident among Labor supporters, with Mr Rudd closer to the political centre (or Labor Party right); many people who would call themselves Left are likely to be finding themselves uncomfortable with his policy shifts on asylum seekers.

There was a clear correlation between age and perceptions of who won the debate, with voters under 35 giving it to Mr Rudd 42 per cent to 29 per cent.

Voters aged 35-54 gave it to Mr Abbott 41 per cent to 34 per cent, while voters 55 and over gave Mr Abbott an even clearer victory 46 per cent to 32 per cent.

Male respondents rated Mr Abbott the clear winner 43 per cent to 35 per cent, with the lead narrower among women, 38 per cent to 35 per cent.

Women were 5 per cent more likely to be undecided on who won.

Other demographic relations saw perceptions of an Abbott win increasing with income, and being substantially higher in Queensland (47 per cent to 32 per cent), South Australia (44 per cent to 33 per cent) and Western Australia (40 per cent to 32 per cent).

Smaller samples in Tasmania gave the debate to Mr Rudd 40 per cent to 37 per cent, while the even smaller sample in the ACT marked Mr Rudd as victor 41 per cent to 32 per cent.

Leadership ratings

All Vote Compass respondents have been asked to give ratings of between 1 and 10 on whether each political leader is trustworthy and competent.

Hundreds of thousands of respondents have engaged in this exercise and provided the demographic details that allow the Vote Compass analytics to weight the sample to reflect the Australian electorate. This leaves an effective sample size of more than 300,000 and means that differences in the ratings of about 0.5 become statistically significant.

Over the whole sample, both Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd rated 3.5 out of 10 for trust, while Kevin Rudd had a slight lead on competence, with a rating of 4.2 to 3.9. Greens leader Christine Milne rated high on trust at 3.7 but lower on competence at 3.2.

As you would expect, partisans of both major parties rated their own leaders as more trustworthy and competent, the overall figures for both parties are mirror images of each other.

Based on respondents' self defined left-right political position, attitudes to the leaders produced the outcome shown in the graph below. The graph averages the two ratings for trust and competence.

Vote Compass analysis showing people's opinions of party leaders, broken down according to political persuasion, August 12, 2013. ( ABC News )

Again, voters who identify themselves on the right are much more likely to rate Tony Abbott highly than left identified voters rate Kevin Rudd. Mr Rudd attracts more Centre and Centre-Right voters than Mr Abbott attracts Centre and Centre-Left voters, but the overall pattern revealed by the graph is that voters on the right are much surer of who their man is than voters are on the left.

Vote Compass asked voters to classify themselves into broad occupational classes as defined for the Census by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. While voter self-placement in these categories may not always be ideal, on the leadership ratings question, the graph below reveals some interesting stories.

Vote Compass analysis showing people's opinions of party leaders, broken down according to people's professions, August 12, 2013. ( ABC News )

Most interesting is the category labelled 'Labourers': Tony Abbott rates 4.2 out of 10, compared to only 3.4 for Kevin Rudd.

These days class isn't what it used to be, and many occupations that can be labelled labouring are better paid than they used to be, but for a Coalition leader to rate higher in this category of voters than a Labor leader is revealing of shifts in the Australian electorate.

Tony Abbott is less preferred in several categories, Arts, Education and Information as well as Health and Public Services being the two that are statistically significant. Neither result is surprising in the Australian context.

Gender reveals some differences, as shown below.

Vote Compass analysis showing people's opinions of party leaders, broken down according to gender, August 12, 2013. ( ABC News )

The ratings of both leaders are virtually equal among men, with Kevin Rudd slightly ahead among women. The most statistically significant difference is between the rating of Tony Abbott by men and women. The difference appears under both categories of trust and competence and is clearly why the Labor Party keeps raising the issue.

State-by-state analysis also reveals some interesting differences.

Vote Compass analysis showing people's opinions of party leaders, broken down according to which state people live in, August 12, 2013. ( ABC News )

Tony Abbott's lead over Kevin Rudd is greatest in Western Australia (4.0 to 3.6) and Queensland (4.2 to 3.8). If Kevin Rudd were going to provide a bounce for Labor in Queensland, the above ratings suggest that Tony Abbott is in fact rated more highly than Kevin Rudd north of the Tweed.

Tony Abbott also leads 3.7 to 3.2 in the Northern Territory, but the Vote Compass sample from the Territory is small.

Kevin Rudd leads 4.1 to 3.5 in Tasmania, good news for Labor given recent perilous polling in the state, and unsurprisingly 4.0 to 3.0 in the ACT.

For students of Australian political history, the following graph of political attitudes based on religion is one of the most interesting findings.

Vote Compass analysis showing people's opinions of party leaders, broken down according to people's religion, August 12, 2013. ( ABC News )

This graph shows that the Protestant-Catholic divide in Australia is not what it used to be. Tony Abbott leads Kevin Rudd 4.4 to 3.5 amongst Protestant voters and is equal to Kevin Rudd at 3.9 among Catholic voters.

Several decades ago the Australian political parties reflected the nation's class divide but also a religious divide inherited from a founding migrant population split between Anglo-Scottish Protestantism, and an Irish-Catholic strand closely aligned with the Labor Party. Increasing affluence and post-war migration have almost erased what was once a fundamental divide in the nation's politics.

What the graph clearly reveals is that the modern divide in politics is not between Catholics and Protestants, but between the religiously observant and those with no religion. Kevin Rudd outrates Tony Abbott 4.3 to 2.5 amongst those with 'other' religions, though no finer breakdown of this is available at this time, and Rudd leads 4.2 to 2.5 amongst those with no religion.