How regional differences in Scotland impacted on voting results in the independence referendum

Steven Ayres explores demographic differences and voting patterns in Scotland’s independence referendum. He finds a strong positive relationship between the proportion of ‘Yes’ votes and out of work benefit claimants, and that areas with a high proportion of people born elsewhere in the UK demonstrated the weakest support for ‘Yes’. He also shows that areas with the highest vote share for the SNP in the 2014 European Parliament election did not actually see the strongest support for independence. Finally, the data reveals a clear negative association with ‘Yes’ and the proportion of population in the 65+ age group, although the relationship appears weaker than for other variables.