Amidst uncertainty as to the economic impact of Brexit, survey responses show a continued divide between age groups, and socio-economic grades.

Young Londoners are much more pessimistic than their older counterparts. For example, seven in ten (68 per cent) 18-24 year olds expect Brexit to have a negative impact on London’s economic growth in the short term compared with two in five (40 per cent) of those aged 65 and above (See Figure 1).

Young Londoners are also pessimistic about how Brexit will impact their own finances; nearly half (49 per cent) of those aged 18-24 expect leaving the EU to have a negative impact in the short term compared to  31 per cent of the older age group (see Figure 2).

Those in higher socio-economic grades are also significantly more likely to say that the impact on London’s economic growth will be negative (AB at 55 per cent and C1 at 58 per cent) while those from lower socio-economic grades are more optimistic (C2 at 41 per cent and DE at 39 per cent).[1]  1

These responses broadly reflect voting patterns in the referendum itself. While voting data by age group is not available in London, boroughs with a younger population were more likely to vote remain, while boroughs with higher proportions of skilled manual workers (C2) were much less likely to do so.