Using a sample of over 35,000 voters, YouGov looks at how voters voted at the 2024 election across factors like age, gender, class, education, income, work status, housing tenure and their vote at past elections
How Britain's age groups voted in 2024
Age was a key dividing line in the last few elections, and the same is true for 2024 with younger voters being more likely to vote Labour and older voters more likely to vote for the Conservatives. The chance of someone having voted Conservative increases gradually with age with just 8% of under 30s voting this way, increasing to 46% of 70 year olds or older.
However, while previously there had also been a gradual decrease in the Labour share as age rises, in this election, around the same proportion of all age groups below 50 voted for Labour (41% to 46%). For the over 50s the proportion voting Labour decreases more steeply with 34% of 50-59s backing Labour, 28% of 60-69s and just 20% of those 70 or older.
The Liberal Democrats were backed similarly across age groups, the Green Party did a lot better with younger voters while Reform UK did better amongst older voters.
The median age of a Labour voter is now 46 and the median age of a Conservative voter is 63. For the Lib Dems it is 48, Reform UK 56, and Greens 39.
How men and women voted in 2024
Men and women voted very similarly to each other at the election with 34% of men and 35% of women backing Labour with the Lib Dems also receiving an almost identical vote share from men (12%) and women (13%). Slightly more women voted Conservative than men (26% to 23%) while more men voted Reform UK than women (17% to 12%).
When looking at just 18-24 year old voters, we find almost twice as many young women voted Green than young men (23% to 12%). Conversely, young men were more likely to vote Reform UK (12% to 6%) and Conservative (10% to 6%) than young women. There weren’t notable differences between men and women in other age groups, other than Reform UK doing better with men than women across the board.
How Britons voted in 2024 by education level
Education remains a strong indicator of how someone voted, with Labour doing a lot better than the Conservatives amongst those who have a university degree (42% to 18%). By contrast, the Tories performed marginally better than Labour amongst those whose highest level of education attained is GCSEs or lower (31% to 28%).
Reform UK also did significantly better amongst those with a lower level of education receiving 23% of the vote amongst this group, compared to just 8% amongst those with a higher level of education.
The opposite was true for the Lib Dems and Greens who did better amongst those with a higher education.
How Britons voted in 2024 by social grade
There is little difference in the Conservative and Labour vote share when looking at social grade. Both parties did slightly better with those from ABC1 voters than C2DE voters, but Labour comfortably outperformed the Conservatives amongst both voters in the higher social grade (36% to 25%) and lower social grade (33% to 23%).
Reform UK did a lot better amongst C2DE voters (20%) than among ABC1 voters (11%), while the Liberal Democrats did slightly better with those from a higher social grade (14% to 11%).
How Britons voted in 2024 by housing tenure
Those who own their house outright voted very differently to renters and those paying off a mortgage at the election. The most popular party among homeowners who are no longer paying a mortgage voted are the Conservatives, whom 37% backed compared to 25% who voted Labour.
In contrast, only 21% of those with a mortgage were more voted Conservative, with those who are renting privately or living in social housing being even less likely to do so (12%-14%).
Among these groups, the most popular party is Labour, with around four in ten (39-42%) having voted for Starmer.
Reform UK outperformed the Conservatives amongst those who are renting social housing, receiving 21% of the vote amongst this group to the Tories’ 14%.
Amongst those who rented privately, Labour (42%) received three times the vote share of any other party with the Lib Dems (14%), Reform (13%), Green (12%) and Conservatives (12%) all receiving a similar share of the vote.
How Britons voted in 2024 by work status and household income
When splitting by work status, it is only retired voters who backed the Conservatives over Labour, doing so by 41% to 23%. Workers backed Labour over the Conservatives by 39% to 20%.
Those with a higher household income were more likely to vote Labour than those with a lower household income. A third (32-34%) of those income groups below £50,000 voted for Labour compared to four in ten (40%) of those in household income groups making £50,000 a year or more.
The Conservative vote share was a lot more consistent across income groups, while Reform UK did better amongst those with a lower household income.
How Britons who voted at the 2019 general election voted in 2024
The Conservatives held onto around half (53%) of their 2019 voters at this election. A quarter (25%) switched to Reform UK, while one in ten (10%) voted Labour and 7% for the Lib Dems. In contrast, Labour held on to 71% of their 2019 voters, losing 10% to the Greens and 8% to the Lib Dems. Only 2% of 2019 Labour voters switched to the Conservatives.
While the Liberal Democrats achieved a similar vote share overall in 2024 as they did in 2019, their voter pool changed significantly with only half (49%) of their past voters sticking with the party. Three in ten (30%) switched to Labour, and 10% to the Conservatives.
How Britons who voted at the EU referendum voted at the 2024 general election
How people voted in the 2016 EU referendum still divides the public when it comes to voting in a general election. Half (47%) of those who voted to Remain in the EU voted Labour in this election with just 16% backing the Conservatives.
In contrast, Labour came third amongst those who voted Leave in 2016, achieving just 19% amongst this group. Both the Conservatives (37%) and Reform UK (28%) outperformed them. The Liberal Democrats did a lot better with Remain voters (17%) than Leave voters (7%).
When combining 2016 EU referendum and 2019 general election vote, we see that the Conservatives managed to keep hold of far more of their Remain voters (63%) than their Leave voters (51%). Three in ten 2019 Conservative+Leave voters (30%) voted for Reform UK.
Labour kept hold of similar numbers of their 2019 voters who voted Remain (74%) or Leave (69%). The Greens were the biggest beneficiaries of 2019 Labour+Remain voters, attracting 10% of this group, while the same proportion (10%) of 2019 Labour+Leave voters switched to Reform UK.
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