[Youth and family in Québec : demographic aspects.]

The following text presents a description of the principal demographic statistics available on young Quebeckers and the family. The character of transition and heterogeouness of youth is underlined : although the majority of young people still live as children at home, many have already made the transition to the adult "independent" stage, with some of them having become parents themselves. An attempt has been made to bring out modifications in the behaviour of young Quebeckers relative to the family, where a decline in marriage and fertility rate is apparent, and where also appear relatively recent changes in life styles : single parent families, out of wedlock unions, living alone. The statistics also reveal that young Quebeckers differ from the whole of Canadian youth in several aspects. For example, the transition to "adult" life, if measured in terms of shouldering of family responsibilities, is made more slowly by young people from Quebec than by the rest of young Canadians.