Introduction: Risky sexual behaviors negatively affect the health of adolescents and youngrnadults putting them at high risk of sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancy forrnfemales, which may cause serious health consequences, social and economic problems. Inrnaddition, unwanted pregnancies may lead to school dropout and end up with unsafe abortion. Nornattempt was done to assess the effect of youth centers in reduction of risky sexual behaviors.rnTherefore, this study was designed to assess the difference in engagement of risky sexualrnbehaviors between users and non-users of youth centers among youth in Addis Ababa.rnMETHODS: A comparative cross-sectional study design was employed among 524 youth inrnAddis Ababa from September, 2015 to June, 2016. Multi-stage sampling was used to select youthsrnfrom randomly selected sub cities. The data was cleaned, entered and analyzed through EPI-INFOrn7 and SPSS version 16.0. First distribution of variables was presented by using tables andrndescriptive statistics to calculate some statistical datas and then logstic regressin model were usedrnto measure magnitude of risky sexual behaviors among users and non-users.rnResults: Nearly half 254 (48%) of the respondents ever had sexual intercourse. The mean age ofrnfirst sexual initiation was 18.56 (Â±3.019) years and about 37% of those who ever had sexualrnintercourse started it before the age of 18 years. Among those who ever had sex 47% of themrnnever used condom. The over all prevalence of risky sexual behavior was 43.1% and thernprevalence of risky sexual behavior among users and non-users were 38.5% and 47.7%rnrespectively (P-value = 0.042). Utilization sataus of the youth center and age of the respondentsrnwere significantly associated with risky sexual behavior. Non-users of the youth center RH clinicrnwere 1.570 times more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior compared to users of the youthrncenter (AOR= 1.570; 95%CI = 1.056, 2.333). Youth aged 15-19 years were 92.1% less likely tornpractice risky sexual behavior compared to youth aged 25-29 years old (AOR = 0.079; 95%CI =rn0.041, 0.376).rnConclusion: A significant number of youths had risky sexual behavior that might lead them torndifferent reproductive health risks. Non-users of the youth center were at a significantly higherrnrisk of sexual behaviors than users.rnKeywords: Youth, Risky sexual behavior, Youth center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia