The aim of this article is to portray the social situation of Portuguese youth nowadays, and identify the main trends of permanence and change that have occurred in this population over the past decade, in three important domains - demography, education and work.

To this end, we focused on the period between 2001 and 2011, when population censuses took place. The analysis of these data enables us to discern three main longitudinal trends. Firstly, its demographic compression, revealing a tendency towards a decrease in young population, more accentuated in ages between 20 and 24 years and 25 and 29 years. A second trend identified is the remarkable progression of Portuguese youth in the school system, as evidenced not only in the considerably high enrollment rates among young adolescents, but also in the increasing number of students among young adults. Finally, the data reveals increased difficulties for Portuguese young people in the access to the labor market. In fact, the process of transition to the labour market is hindered not only at the entry, but also in its permanence and continuity. As a consequence the process of transition to the labour market has been increasingly delayed, extending the situations of financial dependence on the family.

keywords: Youth, Census, Demography, Education, Work, Livelihoods