2018 New Caledonian independence referendum

An independence referendum was held in New Caledonia on 4 November 2018. Voters were given the choice of remaining part of France or becoming an independent country.

Announced in the evening of polling day, the result was 56.4% for maintaining the status quo and 43.6% in favour of independence. The turnout was 81% of the 174,995 voters eligible to vote in this referendum. Recent inhabitants who are registered to vote in general elections were ineligible to vote in the referendum, as agreed in the 1998 Nouméa Accord, representing 17% of the total of 210,105 registered voters of New Caledonia.

Prior to the vote, the government and authorities in Metropolitan France stated that they would recognise and abide by the results of the referendum. Despite the failure of the motion, New Caledonians, under the terms of the Nouméa Accord, had the opportunity to vote again in 2020. Since the 2020 referendum resulted in New Caledonia remaining French, a third, and final, referendum was sanctioned if one third of the Congress of New Caledonia, the local legislature, agreed to allow the vote to be held. Following a request in April 2020 by pro-independence members of Congress, the third referendum was scheduled for 12 December 2021, despite ongoing calls to postpone the referendum citing the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results were overwhelmingly against independence, the FLNKS having boycotted the vote.