Referendum Aftermath: UK to Remain in EU, Poll Suggests

YouGov's poll for Sky News shows 52 percent of respondents favored staying in the EU, while 48 percent of preferred leaving.

The U.K. has made its decision in the referendum on EU membership, with voting closed and the counting of votes cast started in 382 local areas, across 12 regions.

Independent polling company YouGov published a survey in which it asked people it had already polled earlier in the campaign how they actually voted.

Voting stopped at 10 p.m. London time with an estimated voter turnout yet to be announced.

A final, national result is expected to be declared on Friday morning around 7 a.m. after all the 382 local results are declared and then collated into totals for each of the 12 regions.

The referendum has been especially hard to predict: There is little or no data to compare the voting pattern in this referendum with.However, several polls released earlier Thursday had pointed to a lead for the remain camp.

Sunderland, in the North of England, Wandsworth in London and Foyle in Northern Ireland are expected to be the first to report but regional results won't be announced until local area counts are completed.

The working-class region of Sunderland is expected to be a bellwether of whether the leave campaign has managed to sway this demographic, according to the think tank Open Europe.

Once every regional total is announced, an official referendum result will be declared by Chief Counting Officer Jenny Watson.