Using large samples of persons born in 1985 we investigate the relationship between theneighbourhood where young people grew up and the probability that they will receive socialassistance when aged 19 to 21, for the three Swedish metropolitan regions - Stockholm,Gothenburg and Malmö. We also investigate to what extent use of social assistance receiptand other parental characteristics affect the probability of social assistance receipt as a youngadult. Logistic regressions are estimated for the majority population and “visible minorities”.A main result is that the rate of social assistance receipt in the neighbourhood has a sizableeffect on the probability of receiving social assistance as a young adult. We discuss severalpossible explanations for this. We also find that the probability of receiving social assistanceis negatively correlated with having completed secondary school and positively correlatedwith having become a young mother. The probability of social assistance receipt is stronglypositively linked to social assistance receipt in the parental home and negatively linked toincome in the parental home. Having parents with long educations decreases the probabilityof receipt for the majority population while among “visible minorities” it does not thoughreceipt decreases by year since immigration.