Most people in the UK believe Scotland will be independent within a decade, according to a survey.
Nearly 55% of those polled by internet giant Google expected Brexit to lead to the break-up of the UK.
The survey revealed an ever greater proportion of people in Scotland – 56% – thought the country would be independent within 10 years.
The Google study asked 46,000 readers of the Daily Record and their sister titles in England whether they believed the “shock decision to leave the European Union will lead to the break-up of Britain”.
It also asked internet users to decide if border controls or access to the EU single market is more important to them.
In what may make unsettling reading for Nicola Sturgeon, 52% of Scots appeared to back immigration control over the single market – membership of which requires states to allow the free movement of EU nationals.
The SNP leader is demanding Scotland retains its place in the free trade bloc in the wake of the Brexit vote.
She has put forward compromise solutions that include Scotland still being subscribed to the free movement of EU nationals, while part of a UK that curbs migration from the bloc.
Ms Sturgeon says she is prepared to call a second independence referendum if Theresa May does not take the Scottish Government’s suggestions seriously.
Scotland voted to Remain with a 62% majority but faces being taken out of the EU on the strength of Leave votes in England and Wales.
An SNP spokesman said the Conservatives’ attitude to Scotland means it is “no wonder” that people across the UK are “reflecting on the possibilities and opportunities of a different constitutional settlement”.
Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, is set to accuse Ms Sturgeon of putting constitutional division ahead of her stated priority of closing the attainment gap.
“How can education be “the priority” for her, if she plunges us back into another all-consuming fight over Scotland’s place in the UK?” Ms Davidson will say at a speech in London on Monday night.
