An overwhelming majority of voters in the North would rather have an EU border in the Irish Sea than a hard land boundary after a no-deal Brexit.
A poll revealed almost 60% would be in favour of the marine frontier, believing it could save the 40,000 job losses forecast.
There is mounting concern – particularly in the food and farming sectors – as a no-deal scenario looks increasingly likely.
The vast majority of nationalists support the Northern Ireland-only backstop according to LucidTalk, a Belfast-based market research company.
Some 86% of Green Party and 89% of Alliance voters also back the idea, the Sunday Times reports.
Among Ulster Unionist voters, 27% were in favour of an Irish Sea border while of those who supported other loyalist or unionist candidates in the June local elections, the figure was 14%.
Unionists comprised the majority of those who opposed the backstop, with 94% of DUP voters and 69% of UUP backers against it.
Those in the North remain unimpressed with the way the UK has handled withdrawal negotiations.
The survey showed 65.7% believe the Government is doing “very badly” in talks with the EU, while 16.9% think it is coping “fairly badly”.
Just 6.8% said it was doing “fairly well” and only 6.4% answered “very well”. Some 4.2% did not know.
When asked how they would vote if there was another referendum, 58.4% claimed they would be in favour of staying “more closely aligned with the EU than the rest of the UK”.
Meanwhile, 39.5% said they would vote against maintaining closer relations with the EU, while 2.1% of those questioned did not know.
