Recent polls show Bermudians support Independence now more then ever before.

A Royal Gazette poll taken last month shows that 34.7 percent of the population support sovereignty — which is 12 points higher than the last time the public was polled in March.

Prior to this most recent poll, the highest amount of support for Independence, 28 percent, was recorded in August 2005 — immediately after the Bermuda Independence Commission (BIC) began consultations.

The commission was organised to inform and educate the public about the pros and cons of going Independent.

Meetings held by the BIC managed to raise support for sovereignty from 21.4 percent in November 2004 to 28 percent in August 2005.

After hitting that high, numbers fell back to 21.3 percent in July 2006 and only minimally grew to 22 percent in March of this year.

Now, however, 34.7 percent now are pro-Independence, while the number opposed has fallen to a new low of only 54.7. Those who told pollsters they were unsure about the issue make up another 10.6 percent.

Breaking down the figures from the Research Innovations telephone poll of 405 people conducted between May 20 and 22, shows a larger gender gap as well as a change in support from the age groups.

Between the poll in March of this year and the recent poll, the number of men supporting Independence has almost doubled from 26 percent to 50.6 percent.

While the number of men supporting sovereignty has grown dramatically, women continue to overwhelmingly oppose Independence or are not sure.

The number of women supporting Independence has grown minimally from 18.3 percent in March to 21.3 percent in May.

The number opposed dropped from 70.2 percent to 62.8 percent.

What did grow were the number of women unsure about the question from 11.5 percent to 15.8 percent.

Support for the move to sovereignty also remains strongly divided along race lines. Support in the black population has grown to 51.2 percent from 38.1, while support from the white population has halved.

The white population only marginally support autonomy at 9.2 percent which is down from 17.3 percent in March.

What has also changed dramatically is the support among the ages. In previous reports those 18-35 and 55 and over were overwhelmingly against Independence, while those age 36-54 were strongly for it.

Results this time were opposite. The youngest people are now the age group most in favour of autonomy, at 44.6 percent, when in the previous poll only 17.9 percent were in favour. Those between 36-54 came close behind with 43.1 percent supporting Independence.

The lowest support, 9.7 percent, was in the over 55 age-range, down by almost ten percent since March.

And while numbers supporting Independence have grown so have the numbers for deciding the matter with a referendum. The new poll shows 66.4 percent want to decide the issue with a referendum.

Only 22.4 percent want the issue decided in an election and 11.2 percent are undecided about the means for making the decision.

In March only 53.8 percent of those polled desired a referendum and 37.7 percent were for an election.

Research Innovations polls have a margin of error of 4.9 percent.