Seven out of ten Bermudians oppose breaking ties with England, according to a recent poll.

This is the highest percentage of Bermudians to oppose the idea of Independence since November 2004 when Research Innovations began tracking opinions on the issue.

Only 21.3 percent of those polled by Research Innovations in July support the idea of national Independence while 70.5 percent are opposed.

Eight percent of poll respondents said they were undecided on the issue.

In November 2004, 61.4 percent of people disapproved of going Independent. For the remainder of 2004 and 2005 the percentage opposed to splitting from the UK hovered around 63 percent and by January 2006 opposition to Independence was at its lowest with 59.9 percent of Bermudians against it.

But the figures soon reversed and by March, 67 percent of those polled were opposed to Independence.

When the data was broken down, differences of opinion by gender emerged.

Men are more likely to support Independence at 25.3 percent, while only 19.1 percent of women favour going it alone.

People under the age of 35 and over the age of 55 are most likely to oppose Independence ? 79.6 percent of those aged 18-35 and 81 percent of those over age 55 dismissed the idea.

Support for Independence was highest in the 36-54 age bracket with 33.7 percent of respondents in favour.

Middle class individuals ? in households earning between $50,000 and $100,000 ? were more inclined to support Independence than those in the lower or upper class.

However, while 31.4 percent of middle class people supported the idea of Independence 61 percent opposed it and 7.5 percent were unsure.

People in households earning under $50,000 a year overwhelmingly opposed Independence ? 78.8 percent. Less than a fifth of people in this income bracket support Independence.

Meanwhile 70 percent of those in households earning over $100,000 are against a split.

Of the people polled in the highest income bracket only 17.5 percent said they supported Independence and 7.9 percent said they were unsure.

Support for Independence remains higher in the black community than among whites ? 28.7 percent of blacks polled were in favour of breaking ties compared to 15.3 percent of whites.

Respondents of mixed race were 15.4 percent in favour of Independence and 84.6 percent opposed.

Support for deciding on the Independence issue via an election has also dipped over the past year.

According to the latest poll 26.9 percent of respondents are in favour of deciding by an election while in July 2005, 37.7 percent supported the idea.

One in ten respondents this month were unsure whether the issue should be decided by election or referendum, however.

This means that the number of people who outright support a referendum shrank to 62.5 percent in July.