ANC Youth League president Julius Malema's popularity has declined significantly over the past six to seven months, a survey revealed on Wednesday.

The TNS survey found that of the 2000 adults interviewed in seven metropolitan areas, Malema's support base had decreased by more than one-third with most people feeling he had not been sufficiently punished by the ruling party for numerous disciplinary offences.

"Even amongst the youth, his support shows a considerable decline. Whilst his support base does show notable regional differences, nowhere is it more than one-third of people," TNS said in a statement.

The survey found that 21 percent of metro adults supported what Malema said and did, representing a drop in popularity from 27 percent in November.

At that time 59 percent felt that he needed disciplining by the ANC.

The latest study conducted just before the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup showed that only 26 percent felt that he has already been disciplined enough.

Fifty-three percent disagreed in favour of further discipline and 21 percent gave a "don't know" response.

"There are large differences by race but even amongst blacks, only 30 percent support him (down from 38 percent), 61 percent do not (up from 46 percent) and eight percent gave a "don't know" response."

Among other race groups, there was five percent support by whites (down from eight percent), four percent among coloureds (down from 11 percent) and seven percent among Indians/Asians (up from five percent).

Malema's support was mostly found in black men (33 percent) and black women (27 percent), however both figures showed a decline.

While younger people showed greater support (25 percent aged 18 to 34) Malema garnered the support of only 10 percent of adults aged 60 and over, compared to 33 percent surveyed in November last year.

Geographically there were strong differences which the survey found was largely due to race distribution with the most support coming from Gauteng (especially Soweto at 34 percent).

This was followed by Bloemfontein with the least support from Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.