Google Trends Shows Massive Brexit Uncertainty After Polls Closed

Google witnessed a 250 percent surge in searches for “what happens if we leave the EU” around midnight last night, two hours after polls closed in Britain’s EU referendum.

The spike in traffic could be explained by leave voters unsure of their decision, or remain voters getting anxious about the result, which was to come a little over five hours later on Friday morning.

We know now that the Britain voted to leave the European Union, with 51.9 percent of people who cast a ballot voting to leave, against 48.1 percent wanting to remain. Voter turnout was a record 71.8 percent.

Brexit

In London, a region that was one of the strongest remain camps, the most searched for term involving the referendum after polls closed was “who can vote in the EU referendum”, followed by “when will the EU referendum result be known”.

But “what if we leave the EU” was the most searched for ‘what if’ question asked by Brits after polls closed, following by “what if the EU referendum is a draw”.

In the early hours of the morning, Google Trends said it also saw a 680 percent spike in searches for “move to Gibraltar” from Google users in London. “What if the pound collapses” was one of the most searched for terms in Northern Ireland.

Earlier this month, Google revealed how UK citizens were looking to vote in the referendum by analysing their searches.

Google recorded the amount of people Googling for “leave” the EU, and “stay” in the EU, over seven days between May 31 and June 7, with many regions in the UK showing they were strong “leave” supporters.

Take our cybersecurity quiz here!