Comparison · Refnation

Refnation vs YouGov

Two very different ways to read British public opinion — recruited polling, or open participation.

YouGov is the UK's best-known polling company: it surveys a recruited, demographically weighted panel and publishes the headline numbers. Refnation takes the opposite approach — anyone in the UK aged 18 or over can vote directly on live referendum questions, and every result is broken down by age, gender, employment and all 650 constituencies, in the open.

We're not pretending Refnation is a representative national poll. YouGov's weighting exists to model the whole population; Refnation shows what engaged participants actually think, live. They're different tools for different jobs — here's an honest comparison so you can pick the right one.

Refnation vs YouGov at a glance

	Refnation	YouGov
Who takes part	Anyone in the UK aged 18+, one verified vote each.	A panel recruited and managed by YouGov.
How results are made	Direct votes, shown live and unweighted.	A sample statistically weighted to model the population.
Updates	Real time — shifts with every vote cast.	Periodic published polls and surveys.
Your own profile	Yes — a personal political leaning + conformity score that evolves.	No — polls are aggregate, not a profile of you.
Demographic breakdown	Always visible on every question — age, gender, employment.	Cross-tabs in selected published reports.
Constituency view	Live results across all 650 seats, mapped.	Regional splits; MRP-modelled seat estimates in select research.
Ask your own question	Yes — any verified user can start a referendum.	No — YouGov decides what gets surveyed.
Cost	Free forever.	Free to read published results; bespoke polling is paid.

Representative polling vs. open participation

A YouGov poll asks a few thousand recruited panellists and then weights their answers so the sample mirrors the national population by age, region, past vote and more. It's built for statistical representativeness. Refnation doesn't weight anything — it shows the actual votes of everyone who took part. That means it isn't a substitute for a representative poll, but it is a far more open, granular and live picture of where engaged Britons stand.

What Refnation shows that a poll doesn't

A poll gives you an aggregate number. Refnation gives you a personal political identity: two independent scores — your political leaning (Hard Left to Hard Right) and your conformity (how often you agree with the rest of the country) — both broken down by topic and updated with every vote. You can also ask your own question and watch the country answer in real time, something a polling company never lets the public do.

When YouGov is the better tool

If you need a statistically representative snapshot of national opinion — for research, a news story, or a forecast — a properly weighted poll is the right instrument, and YouGov is very good at it. Refnation is the better tool when you want live, participatory, fully-transparent data, constituency-level detail, and a political profile of your own.

Common questions

Is Refnation a free alternative to YouGov?+

Refnation is free to use and read, but it isn't a like-for-like replacement for YouGov's weighted polling. It's a live, participatory view of public opinion plus a personal political profile. If you need a statistically representative national snapshot, a weighted poll does that job; if you want granular, real-time, participatory data — and your own political leaning — Refnation does.

Is Refnation's data representative of the whole UK?+

No, and we don't claim it is. Results reflect the people who chose to vote, shown unweighted, whereas YouGov weights a recruited panel to model the population. Refnation's value is the breadth of direct participation and full transparency — every vote broken down by age, gender, employment and constituency, out in the open.

Can I see UK opinion by constituency, like an MRP poll?+

Yes. Every Refnation question is mapped across all 650 UK constituencies with live results, and you can colour the map by political leaning or by conformity. These are real votes from residents, not modelled estimates.

See where you really stand

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Also compare: Refnation vs The Political Compass · What is Refnation?