Young voters did turn out in large numbers for the referendum

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In the immediate of the referendum there were news stories suggesting a very low turnout among younger voters.

Now research has appeared that questions that conclusion.

Toby Helm writes in the Observer:

The turnout among young people aged 18 to 24 in the EU referendum was almost double the level that has been widely reported since polling day, according to evidence compiled at the London School of Economics. 

The new findings – based on detailed polling conducted since the referendum by Opinium, and analysed by Michael Bruter, professor of political science and European politics at the LSE, and his colleague, Dr Sarah Harrison – suggests the turnout was 64% among this age group.

He goes on to quote from a report by Bruter and Harrison:

"The question of whether young people voted or not is politically important for two critical reasons. 

"First, because there continues to be a significant proportion of younger voters who say that they are unhappy with the result of the referendum and want to be heard, and one of the key arguments that has been made in answer to them is that they should have bothered to vote if they cared that much. 

"And, second, because the government chose not to give the right to vote to 16- and 17-year-olds in the referendum. It is fair to ask whether allowing them to vote could have changed the result of the referendum or not."