2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum

The 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, was a referendum that took place on Thursday 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar under the provisions of the European Union Referendum Act 2015 to ask the electorate whether the country should continue to remain a member of, or leave, the European Union (EU). The result was a vote in favour of leaving the EU, triggering calls to begin the process of the country's withdrawal from the EU commonly termed "Brexit". Since 1973, the UK had been a member state of the EU and its predecessor organisation the European Communities (EC) (principally the European Economic Community (EEC), along with other international bodies.