Almost a third of Russian people would like to move abroad, according to the recent poll by Romir pollster.

      Thirty-one percent of respondents said they had considered emigrating, which is 12 percentage points more than in a similar poll in 2005.

      The biggest amount of potential emigrants among males, people with a higher education, upper-income workers and single persons without children. Young people were the most likely to want to leave, with almost a half saying they were hoping to live abroad.

      The most popular destinations were the European Union (37%), United States (19%), Australia and New Zealand (23%), the independent pollster Romir says. Other popular destinations are Asian countries (23%), like Japan or southeastern Asia.

      Some 55 percent said they had no desire to move, and 14 percent said they could not answer.

      About 1000 respondents aged 18-50 took part in the poll, they all are living in big Russian cities.

      Sergei Stepashin, the head of Russia's Audit Chamber, said last year about 1,250,000 Russians had emigrated in the past decade.