Using census data from Brazil, Mexico, and South Korea in two years, 1970 and 2000, we
conduct cross-time and cross-national comparisons of the transition to adulthood. The three
countries, which showed relatively similar levels of demographic, economic, and educational
development in 1970, have, since then, followed considerably different trajectories of economic
and educational models. We examine how these different national “scenes” produced very
different patterns of transition to adulthood, addressing how institutional contexts shape life
courses of young adults. To measure the timing and complexity of the transition to adulthood as
a whole, we apply entropy analysis that provides a single measure summarizing combinations of
multiple demographic statuses held by young people. We compare the age distributions of agespecific
entropy across countries in each year to identify which countries show more
heterogeneity in status combinations at specific stage of life course, how the patterns have
changed over time, and how they relate to the economic development trajectories of these three
countries.