Unravelling the geography and spatial mismatch of individual and political discontent in the UK

This paper studies the association between life and political discontent in the regions (NUTS2) of the United Kingdom in the Brexit period (2015–2016). Previous literature suggested that political discontent is propelled by the unhappiness experienced by people suffering from the economic decline of their community. This paper provides a first attempt to test empirically this hypothesis by mapping the geography of life and political discontent, by identifying alternative regional discontent typologies and by profiling them according to their socioeconomic characteristics. Results suggest that the link between regional economic decline and political discontent via life dissatisfaction accounts for a partial variation in political discontent outcome. Regional demography and cultural values are important co-determinants of political discontent.