Doesn't make sense, at all.
He has spent the last 20-odd years screaming about how bad the EU is saying it is undemocratic, wasteful, an affront to national sovereignty, promotes uncontrolled immigration and so on. Yet none of his or UKIPs arguments really stand up to serious scrutiny. He has been very good at redirecting the anger of marginalised communities away from the real source of their woes and towards the EU.
He has made people think that the EU is to blame for their problems, when in fact those problems are the responsibility of the UK government.
He has portrayed himself as a man of the people with the pint and ciggie, despite the fact that he is anything but.
He has managed to get the support of traditional Labour supporters despite the fact that he is as hard-right as they come. That's quite an achievement.
Don't forget that UKIP was founded as a fairly Liberal euroscpetic party. The original leader Alan Sked was forced out by Farages mob for being too intellectual.
Farage is a master manipulator and he knows that winning the referendum was only the first stage in a long process that will go on for years. He's taking a back seat now to avoid being a part of the current political maelstrom, but you can be certain he'll reappear when he knows he can take advantage of the situation. I also wouldn't be surprised if he is also pulling a few political string behind the scenes.
If the Tories have any sense they'll drag this out for a year or two, get a rubbish set of new proposals, give us a new referendum and people will vote to stay this time.
He's fucked the country and his self.
So if you look closer at the data, then you'll see that anti-EU sentiment is way stronger then pro-EU throughout Europe.
I believe that people higher-up the food-chain have access and a say in the social and mass media. This creates a strong reality distorted (like London vs Rest of England).
/sarcasm