According to online polling firm YouGov, 75 percent of British voters aged 24 and younger—who registered to vote in record numbers for the referendum—voted to remain in the European Union. But the older the voter, the higher the Leave vote: 56 percent of voters aged 50-64, and 61 percent of those aged 65 and older.
In the United States, older voters are similarly more receptive to the isolationist, anti-immigrant policies of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. According to a Wall Street Journal poll from December, only 16 percent of young voters aged 18 through 34 said they agreed with his plan to temporarily shut our borders to Muslim immigrants. That figure almost doubles among those aged 50 through 64.
In years to come, we’ll likely see the same pattern: Older voters embracing policies that wall them off from the rest of the world, while younger voters, reared in the internet age, support the notion of an international community.