This overview opened the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) research forum entitled Are We There Yet? Youth Transitions in Australia, held at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, on 11 April 2013.

Youth longitudinal surveys have a long history in Australia, dating back to the Youth in Transition study which commenced with a cohort of young people born in 1961. The initial motivation for the surveys was an increase in unemployment, and the changes in the labour market since the 1970s have kept youth transitions an important policy issue. The overview also maps the breadth of topics being researched and how they have changed over the past 25 years. A bonus is a long list of research papers that look at the longitudinal youth data.