According to a recent survey (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund 2000; UNICEF), children and adolescents of Latin America think that they will have a better future compared to that of their parents, but at the same time they think that their countries will be a worse place to live. An important proportion of them does not have confidence in government institutions. The most frequent source of concern is violence and insecurity. The daily experiences of these youths reflect some of the problems and situations affecting the whole society, especially the younger generations.

This chapter describes some of the most relevant characteristics of the adolescent population in Latin America, with the aim of anticipating certain issues that adolescents could face in the 21st century. I will try to give an overview of their living conditions and behavior related to various aspects of social life in a relatively short text. Contrary to what one would like to do, the present text is a pessimistic vision of the youth in this region of the world. It is difficult to be optimistic if one knows in detail what the living conditions of the children, adolescents, and young adults are and what they can expect of their future.

Given that there is a lack of recent information on adolescents for most of the countries of this region of the world, I have used information from census or survey data for some countries representing the whole range of situations one can find in Latin America.