The evolution of starbursts and their young stellar populations is usually studied using evolutionary population synthesis and photo-ionization calculations. We give a more empirical approach to this issue by appling empirical population synthesis techniques to samples of starburst and H ii galaxies, to measure their evolutionary state and correlate the results with their emission line properties. The results are presented using an evolutionary diagram whose axis are the strengths of the young, intermediate and old age components of the population mix. We also recover the long known prediction that the WHβ and the gas extinction decrease as the starburst ages.