The report's authors, Tom Switzer and Charles Jacobs, wrote that millennials born from 1980 to 1996, "have never truly seen the effects of socialism" because they only became politically aware "after socialism's long reign of terror".

"The oldest were aged just nine when the Berlin Wall fell," they wrote.

A majority of respondents to the survey (59%) believe capitalism has failed and say that the government should play a bigger role in regulating the economy. Two-thirds of millennials believe Australian workers are worse off now than they were 40 years ago.

A total of 63% of university-educated millennials view socialism favourably, compared to 52% of TAFE-educated millennials, according to the research. CIS suggested that millennials are "far more likely to be exposed to socialism at university" and that this was a damning indictment on the school system.

"In most constituencies, history is a non-compulsory subject in later years of high school and thus students are not educated on the failed implementations of socialism throughout the 20th century," report authors Tom Switzer and Charles Jacobs said.

And the fact university-educated millennials were more in favour of socialism raised questions about how socialism was being presented in universities, they said.