In October 2017 a poll found that 61.94 percent were in favour of having a referendum on a united Ireland within the next ten years.
[57] The same poll found that 55 percent of those asked would vote to remain within the United Kingdom if a referendum was held tomorrow while 33.7 percent said they would vote yes and 9.8 percent were undecided.
[58] The poll also asked how those asked would vote in the event of a "
hard Brexit" that was bad for Northern Ireland and a "
soft Brexit" that was good for Northern Ireland but the undecided were excluded. In the event of the latter 62.84 percent would vote to remain in the UK while 37.14 would vote for a United Ireland. In the case of the former 53.57 percent said they would vote to remain in the United Kingdom while 46.43 would vote to leave it and have a United Ireland.
[59]
Since then, support for a united Ireland has further increased and for the first time saw a majority of respondents favouring this option: in December 2017, an opinion poll carried out by LucidTalk on more than 2,000 people saw 47.9% of respondents willing to vote for a united Ireland if a border poll was held in the event of a hard Brexit, against 45.4 for maintaining the status quo.
[60] 6% of respondents were undecided, and less than 1% of respondents stated that they would not vote.
Shows the proportion of responses to the question "Do you think the long-term policy for Northern Ireland should be for it," in each year of the Northern Ireland Life and Times survey.
[61] This is an annual survey conducted by Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University.