Introduction The aim of this chapter1 is to investigate the state of young people in Italy and how it has changed since the 1990s. Our interpretation is based on transition from childhood to adulthood (Cavalli and Galland, 1993). In this approach, the term young people describes individuals at a particular time when they are facing major changes: concluding their studies, finding a job, and leaving their family (and, eventually, creating a new family and having children). In keeping with this theoretical framework, we reviewed not only previous research explicitly focused on young people but also research on the social institutions that play a crucial role in the transition processes (in particular, labour market, family and welfare state). Therefore, we focused on literature on the Italian family, educational system and labour market. In the sections that follow we describe the peculiar characteristics of these institutions in the Italian case and we analyse how they have changed in recent decades. In particular, we show how the policy reforms and cultural changes in these social domains have strongly affected the new generation’s living conditions. We also focus on an issue which has arisen from these changes and is now emerging in youth literature, namely intergenerational equity.