(CNSNews.com) - The current generation of young voters is promising to be the most liberal generation of Americans in decades, according to a study released Thursday by a liberal group. An organization for young conservatives challenged the claim.

"Millennials" -- Americans born between 1978 and 1996 -- "are civic-minded, politically engaged and hold values long associated with progressives, such as concern about economic inequalities, desire for a more multilateral foreign policy and a strong belief in government," said the report compiled by the New Politics Institute (NPI), an arm of the New Democrat Network.

The survey studied existing polling data, comparing millennials with previous generations and finding them to be more liberal than their predecessors.

As the youth generation in 1991, a majority of Generation Xers identified with the Republican Party, according to Pew data. By 2006, however, identification with Republicans dropped 20 percentage points among the young generation, while identification with Democrats rose from 33 percent in 1991 to 49 percent in 2006.

A 1988 Pew Values survey found that 18- to 25-year-olds were evenly split on the necessity of having an inefficient and wasteful government. A follow-up survey in 2003 found that 18- to 35-year-olds favored an efficient, hard-working government by 31 percentage points.

While it is common for young people to be more liberal than their ....