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Studies of stellar populations, understood to mean collections of stars withcommon spatial, kinematic, chemical, and/or age distributions, have beenreinvigorated during the last decade by the advent of large-area sky surveyssuch as SDSS, 2MASS, RAVE, and others. We review recent analyses of these datathat, together with theoretical and modeling advances, are revolutionizing ourunderstanding of the nature of the Milky Way, and galaxy formation andevolution in general. The formation of galaxies like the Milky Way was longthought to be a steady process leading to a smooth distribution of stars.However, the abundance of substructure in the multi-dimensional space ofvarious observables, such as position, kinematics, and metallicity, is by nowproven beyond doubt, and demonstrates the importance of mergers in the growthof galaxies. Unlike smooth models that involve simple components, the new datareviewed here clearly show many irregular structures, such as the Sagittariusdwarf tidal stream and the Virgo and Pisces overdensities in the halo, and theMonoceros stream closer to the Galactic plane. These recent developments havemade it clear that the Milky Way is a complex and dynamical structure, one thatis still being shaped by the merging of neighboring smaller galaxies. We alsobriefly discuss the next generation of wide-field sky surveys, such asSkyMapper, Pan-STARRS, Gaia and LSST, which will improve measurement precisionmanyfold, and comprise billions of individual stars. The ultimate goal,development of a coherent and detailed story of the assembly and evolutionaryhistory of the Milky Way and other large spirals like it, now appears wellwithin reach.

Galactic Stellar Populations in the Era of SDSS and Other Large Surveys