Enter the data

Luckily, the relevant data is all easily available: the referendum results for each voting area, the map files dividing the country into voting areas, the lot. So, let’s dive in and see what we can see.

Map 1: Brexit results plotted using a continuous colourmap from 20–80%

Ahhhh, that’s better.

Instead of using two colours I’ve assigned each individual area a colour based on how it voted. A high Leave percentage is coloured dark-blue/purple and a high Remain percentage is shown as light-green/bright-yellow.

Especially strong pockets of Leave voting (around the Wash say) and Remain voting (central London) can be seen clearly.

In general this map tells a more complex and subtle story. Even though Scotland and Northern Ireland voted Remain as a whole, both have areas that show less intense support, with seven of Northern Ireland’s areas actually voting Leave.

Scotland seems to be visually distinct, but is this due to a high level of Remain support, or more to do with the disproportionate expanse of map it inhabits? Let’s scale the map according to population.

Map 2: Brexit results plotted using a continuous colourmap from 20–80%, voting areas scaled to population

London now takes big bulgy pride of place as the country’s largest population centre, and is now visible as a massive hub of Remain support.

Scotland’s looking a mite pinched, but still certainly more yellow than the non-London parts of the UK.

Poor Gibraltar has disappeared entirely.