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The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, also known as the EU referendum, took place in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar on 23 June 2016. Membership of the European Union has been a topic of debate in the United Kingdom since the country joined the European Communities , as it was known then, in 1973. The referendum was conducted very differently to the European Communities membership referendum in 1975 with a more localised and regionalised counting procedure and was also overseen by the Electoral Commission, a public body which did not exist at the time of the first vote. This article lists, by voting area, all the results of the referendum, each ordered into national and regional sections. Under the provisions of the European Union Referendum Act 2015 there were a total of 382 voting areas across twelve regions using the same boundaries as used in European Parliamentary elections since 1999 under the provisions of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 with votes counted at local authority level: in England the 326 local government districts were used as the voting areas; these consist of all unitary authorities, all metropolitan boroughs, all shire districts, the London boroughs, the City of London and the Isles of Scilly. The nine regions of England were then also used to count the votes at the regional level with Gibraltar being regarded as part of South West England. Northern Ireland was a single voting area, as well as being a regional count, although local totals by Westminster parliamentary constituency area were announced. In Scotland the 32 Scottish council areas were used as voting areas and a single national count. In Wales the 22 Welsh council areas were used as the voting areas and a single national count.Counting began as soon as the polls closed on 23 June from 2200 BST onwards making it the first UK-wide referendum to be counted overnight and took nine hours and twenty minutes to complete. The result of the referendum was forecast by the BBC just before 04:40 BST , with around 308 results declared at the time. The first result announced was Gibraltar, and the last was Cornwall. On 23 June 2016 the recorded result was that UK voters favoured leaving the European Union, by 51.9% for Leave, and 48.1% for Remain with 263 voting areas voting to Leave the European Union to 119 voting areas who voted to Remain a member of the European Union. In July 2018, three reports were issued by the Electoral Commission, the Information Commissioner's Office, and the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee finding criminal offences of overspending by Vote Leave, data offences, and foreign interference by Russia. In August 2018, this led to legal challenges to declare the referendum void for violating common law and UK constitutional law.
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